An Old Cliche: the desert's rose
by Lyra Carmen
Summary: Vivi by a stroke of luck has run into the Mugiwaradan again. And again she needs their help. With Kohza in tow will the Luffy Pirates be able to help her again? ZoroxVivi KohzaxVivi SanjixNami RobinxLuffy -DROPPED!-
1. Chapter 01 A King

An Old Cliche:

the desert's rose

Chapter 01 - A King's Gathering

By: L.R. Pelgina

and Starfirehime

Authors Note: The first chapter will seem very VivixKohza-ish but that's because Zoro isn't here yet. For all the ZoroxVivi pushers don't worry there WILL be ZoroxVivi action in later chapters. And for the KohzaxVivi ones, there will be some of that too! Happy reading

Disclaimer: Besides the villians I create I don't own any of this! I don't want Oda-sensei to get me for copyright or infringment laws. Thanks so much.

Kohza hestitantly bowed before his king and princess. Ever since he was a child, Kohza never could believe that another human being could be worth more than himself, which was why he always had trouble bowing. He probably wouldn't have done it at all had he not caused them so much trouble just a few months earlier.

"Kohza, what are you doing? We're all on familiar terms here. Stand up," the princess smiled softly at him.

This was more than Kohza desereved at the moment and he knew it, but he did as his princess requested of him. He stood slowly and took in the sight of the country's king and princess. Kohza had only seen Vivi for a brief moment he had run into the castle during the rebellion. Although he had seen her in all the chaos with Crocodile, he hadn't really been abe to take in how she really looked and how much she had grown since he last seen her when they were children.

Even when Kohza was young he had thought she was cute, but now he felt as if all the breath in his body had been taken from him; time had been lovingly tender to Vivi. Instead of the hot-headed little brat he remembered, Vivi had grown into a lovely woman. Her now long hair cascaded into a lovely waterfall of blue, and her face was pale, despite the emence heat of her country, that gave her a beautiful China doll appearance. Not to mention she had filled out in other places that he found disturbing to think of on his childhood friend, and Kohza could feel a slight red surface on his cheeks. He couldn't help but wonder what she thought on how the sands of time had been with him.

Kohza realized he must have been staring, because the King then loudly reminded Kohza that the girl's father was also in the room with them. Kohza panicked, and in such a state forgot himself and bowed again.

"We already said you can stand," King Kobra stated matter-of-factly.

Kohza stood in a hurry this time and decided it was probably best to keep his attention on the King. Perhaps that wasn't such a good idea afterall. The king was looking at him with an irritatingly smug smile, like he had just read every thought that had run through Kohza's mind, and couldn't be prouder that his daughter was so. . . well, Kohza wasn't sure yet just what she was, but he didn't really want to entertain the idea with the king in the room at the same time. Kohza did his best to swallow his nervousness and speak.

"In any case, what did you call me here for," he asked impatiently, he never did like to waste his time.

The King's smile grew wider, "Now, that's the Kohza I know," he said, "Always to the point. Well, I won't upset you this time, as we're short on it anyhow," the king stood, "Kohza, I'm sure you are aware that the next Meeting of Kings is coming up soon, am I wrong?"

Kohza's eyes traveled away from the king to rest briefly back on Vivi. What was going on? What did this have to do with him?

"What does this have to do with me? Once more, what does that have to do with Vivi?" Kohza asked.

"Good question! What indeed! Kohza, this year, I want to send Vivi in my place," Kobra beamed.

Vivi turned to her father, just as shocked as Kohza, "What? Father, do you think that's wi--" Kobra lifted a hand to silence her before she could finish.

"Do you think she's ready for such a thing, Kohza?" Kobra asked him.

Kohza shuffled his gaze to the floor. Damn king. The king had always liked to play mind games with Kohza, Kohza knew that the king hadn't asked him to come all the way from Yuba just to ask him if he thought Vivi was ready to go to a King's meeting.

"She just about stopped the civil war in the country single-handedly, of course she's ready. Such a task would be simple for her," Kohza said.

Kohza let his eyes travel back to Vivi, courious about her reaction to his words, and was elated to see that she had also turned a light shade of pink.

"Just the answer I was looking for!" Kobra exclaimed, "Now, on to your second question," the king paused and his expression sombered; Kohza could tell this was going to be serious, "I want you you go with her," he said, every inch of seriousness in his voice.

Kohza's mind dropped to the floor. What was the king proposing? Was he suggesting that he be the next king? NO! That would never happen! Not in a million years...right?

"W--what are you saying? I'm not the king! How can I go to the king's meeting in Eden!" Kohza stuttered, turing a slight red color and staring aghast at the king.

"I want you to go with her as her protection, with Pell of course, and as the rebel leader. We need the rebel leader there just in case they wish to assume things in Alabasta are still not okay between the rebels and us. You are going in order to prove that the rebellion is indeed over," Kobra finished, smiling his widest yet at Kohza's embarrassed face, "That is, of course, if it's all okay with Vivi-chan," The king said, turning to his daughter.

"Eh! I'd be more than happy to have Leader accompany me," Vivi beamed.

Kohza found that he had to, once again, let his eyes leave Vivi and hit the floor in order to avoid his red face to be seen, or to avoid it from getting any redder.

"And you Kohza, do you accept?" Kobra asked.

Kohza nodded silently, he still hadn't taken his eyes off the ground.

"Well, it's settled then!" The king exclaimed, "I'll have a boat prepared at onc--"

"Your highness," Kohza interrupted.

The king stopped instantly at the serious tone in Kohza's voice, and was even more shcocked when Kohza bowed his head, eyes still on the floor, got on one knee and bowed deeper, "Your highness and princess, I offer my deepest apologies for the things I have done and said, not only to your country, but to you as well. For this, I feel that I could never properly repent because I should have trusted you, not just as my king and princess, but as my friends as well."

Kobra and Vivi exchanged looks of surprise. To Kohza, it seemed like an eternity, the silence that followed his apology never seemed to end, and then Vivi was suddenly in front of him, inches away from him. She put her hands on his shoulders so he would sit up and look her in the face, and when he saw her up close for the real first time in years, she was smiling at him and crying at the same time. She threw her arms around him and hugged him.

"We're both just glad you're safe, Leader," she said through her relieved sobs.

Kohza, unsure of himself, wrapped one arm behind her, reassuring his dear friend that he was indeed there, and also reassuring himself that she was real as well.

Behind them, the king smiled again.

Authors Note pt.2: There you have it. The begininng to a very confussing but exsistant plot! Oh, and for all the SanjixNami fans theirs going to be plenty of that too. My friend Starfirehime is going to see to that. And if your a LuffyxRobin fan there's some of that coming too! Just be patient! By the way, next update will be on Nov. 4! Otanoshimini!


	2. Chapter 02 Elegance Under War

An Old Cliche:

the desert's rose

Chapter 02 - Elegance Under War

By: L.R. Pelgina

and Starfirehime

Authors Note: Sorry this is late. I guess my computer was having problems loading But it's up now sooooooo -- This chapter has a slightly different writing styles then the rest and may seem a bit...odd. It's because I kept changing the point of veiws in which I was writing. If you don't like this change let me know in the reveiws and I'll go back to the way I was writing in Chapter 1! Also you may be confused at the end of this chapater but worry not! All will be explained in the next Chap. Thanks and reveiw damn it! I know alot more people are looking at this then are reveiwing! My stats say so! To those that DO reveiw, thanks so much!

Disclaimer: Besides the villians I create I don't own any of this! I don't want Oda-sensei to get me for copyrights.

Kobra was quite proud! His little Vivi was off to her first King's meeting. Kobra inwardly sighed. They all grow up so fast don't they?

"I'm sorry to interrupt you your highness," Iguram was standing at the end of the throne room and seemed to be regretful that he had interuppted the king's remenising, "But I have a message for you that just came from Insula." he said and brought the king a small slip of paper on which there was a note.

King Kobra read it, obviously uninterested and unamused that his musings had been interfered with, that was until he realized what he was reading.

"Oh no!" Kobra said, apparent worry in his voice.

"Your highness?" Iguram questioned.

"Vivi's in danger!"

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Zoro yawned and stretched out as best he could inside the crow's nest. It was getting to be early morning and it was his turn to keep night watch again. Whatever the case, he had lost sleep during the night and did not appreciate it; sleep to him was almost as important as his swords were. Zoro then decided that he wasn't going to get a proper stretch unless he stood up, so he arose from his seated position and proceeded to do so when something caught his eye.

"Oi! Nami!" Zoro yelled over the side of the nest, he was answered by a sleepy looking redhead coming out from the cabin and shooting him a tired but angry look, "I see an island," he finished before he received a scolding for ruining her morning for no apparent reason.

Nami snapped awake instantly and was about to announce their arrival on an island, but Luffy beat her to it.

"ISLAND!" Luffy yelled at the top of his lungs and jumped up to the top of the Going Merry head, his "personal seat".

"Taku!" Nami muttered and headed for the kitchen, Zoro assumed, for breakfast. He couldn't really be sure anymore. It seemed to him that Nami and that ero cook had been getting closer and closer to each other with an intention different then just being nakama, but that wasn't really any of his buisness to begin with. In fact, it seemed that everyone on the boat had someone they were interested in. Luffy was taking more interest in Robin after the whole Aokiji incident, Usoppu was suddenly content in his speaking of Kaya (probably due to all the talk of getting the boat fixed), and of course, there was the navigator and the cook. It seemed as though he and Chopper were the only ones without someone in mind. But, as he said before, it wan't any of his buisness. Besides, he didn't really have time for girls until he completed his promise and beat Mihawk anyway. And in any case, none of the ones currently on the boat interested him like that anyhow.

They reached the island within an hour's time and instantly started laying out plans, in other words, they all had things they wanted to do and agreed to meet up again at night when, Nami explained, the rouge pose would be done recording and they could leave.

Luffy left instantly, Robin followed him closely, no doubt feeling a bit more secure with the captain after noticing all the marine boats. Usoppu and Chopper went to look for medical supplies and supplies for fixing the boat. Nami just plain wanted to go shopping and the ero cook more than happily offered to carry her bags. So Zoro by default was left to watch Merry.

After they were all gone, he got out his exercise equipment. He was just about ready to start when he saw a very familiar shade of yellow. Zoro instantly dropped his exercise equipment when recognition dawned on him.

It couldn't be, it was impossible. Never in a million years did he think. . . the odds of this were a million to one.

Zoro jumped off the boat in a hurry and rushed toward the speeding flash of yellow. When he caught up, the other individual seemed just as suprised (only gladder) to see him.

"Carue!" Zoro exclaimed, "It IS you! What are you doing here? Where's Vivi?" he asked.

Oops. That was probably something Zoro shouldn't have asked. The spotbill instantly burst into a flurry of tears.

Zoro sweatdropped, "Alright! Alright! I get it! So you're lost! I'll help you find her," he said trying to calm the flurried duck down.

Carue reluctently stopped his crying and followed Zoro as he lead him into the city of Eden.

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"Carue!" Vivi shouted over the crowd of people, but it was no use, her spotbill duck was nowhere in sight. Vivi knew he had a habit of taking off but this was getting to be just rediculous. She was starting to get worried

"Vivi, we haven't really got the time for this. We're going to be late for the Gathering of Kings," Kohza said, flustered at the bad name that they would give Alabasta if they showed up late.

"I can't just leave him," Vivi said, worry evident on her face and in her voice. Carue was her special companion to her. He was a nakama too damn it! He had worn the second mark just as proudly as any of the strawhats, "Besides, Pell went ahead to explain that we would be late for us."

Kohza sighed, "I'm going to ask around for a bit. Wait HERE!" He insisted and turned around to ask a few selling vendors not far away about the missing duck.

Vivi frowned at his retreating back. Kohza hadn't changed a bit since they were kids. He still saw no difference between royalty and himself and therfore had no problem bossing her around. She sighed and looked around for Carue once more when out of nowhere there he was!

Vivi waved, elated, towards Carue, "Car--!" She began to call to him but the words caught in her throat when she saw who was with Carue. She nearly broke down in tears at the sight, "Mr. Bushido," she whispered to herself and then, forgeting Kohza's words completely ran straight for them at her full speed. She never thought she could run so fast in her life.

Zoro saw Vivi ahead of them, saw her notice Carue at first and began to wave for him. Knowing Vivi, Zoro was sure she probably had been worried sick. Vivi did like to worry after all.

Then Zoro noticed her freeze her movements entirely. So she had noticed him. She looked at his face with a mixture of shock, relief, and overwhelmed happiness, it seemed. And then she was running toward them as fast as she could, Zoro halted himself and Carue in order to avoid a complete collision.

She reached him within a matter of seconds and he smiled at her as he approached.

"Yo, Vi--," Zoro started when Vivi threw her arms around her long-lost nakama and the rest of his words died before they could.

"I-is it r-really you, Mr. Bushido?" Vivi hiccupped between sobs.

Zoro's mouth hung open but no words came out. He had never been shown this much attention before. Hell, he had never even been hugged before, let alone by a girl, especially by a girl as pretty as Vivi. What? Were did that come from? Zoro stopped his train of thought immediatly. He was getting uncomfortable and he could feel the blood in his cheeks rising to the surface; this had to stop.

Zoro grabbed Vivi by her shoulders and held her at arms length. She was still crying and her face was flushed because of it. She raised a free hand to wipe her face.

Damn! There came that blood rising to his cheeks again, and what was worse was he couldn't find anything to say to her. Fortunatly for his sake he didn't have to.

A strong battle aura was heading their way at a deadly speed. Zoro narrowed his eyes and had just enough time to push a shocked Vivi out of harms way before the sword came down on him.

He blocked it easily. It was a large sword, somewhat similar to that of Mihawk's, with less of a wide blade but just as long, and the man attached to the sword was no Mihawk. This man was tacky with his swordsmanship at best. He was, after all, attacking Zoro with an obvious display of anger.

"Get away from Vivi," he snarled through his teeth.

Zoro's eyes turned dangerous and he pulled out a second sword with his free hand, "That's MY line," he said and slashed at the man with the other sword, which, surprisingly, the man sucessfully dodged.

Zoro smirked; well, he could do SOME things with a sword if he had been able to dodge that. Zoro placed Wadu Ichimonji (the white sword ) in his mouth and drew his last one free from it's sheath. The other man raised an eyebrow but kept his defensive stance.

"Come," Zoro commanded through the sword clenched in his teeth. The other man wasted no time and began to run foward when Vivi's voice rang out.

"Leader! Stop!" Vivi yelled as she whipped out her peacock slashers and wrapped them around the man's legs.

Carue was in front of Zoro, holding up his wings, trying to prevent any further advances from Zoro, who relaxed a bit but didn't put his swords away.

The man nearly tripped, but didn't. When he regained his balance, Vivi was at his side.

"Vivi! What the hell!" the man began but was cut short by a look from Vivi.

"He's a friend of mine. A precious nakama and I won't have you fight him," Vivi said and Zoro could see the man glare at her, and then at him as Vivi unwrapped her peacock slashers from around his legs. The man hadn't put his swords away either, "You'd never beat him in a million years, leader, and I don't want to see you dead."Vivi said as she finished off the last of the unting.

Zoro looked the man over slowly. What sort of man does a princess call leader? Just who was this guy to Vivi? How did she know him? And more importantly, why shouldn't he cut him to pieces?

Zoro of course wasn't sure why he instantly took a disliking to this man, but hey, stuff like that usually came natural. Like how he didn't get along with a certain ero cook.

After Vivi had finished untying the other man, she immediatly went to go explain to Zoro. Zoro figured, from her earlier comment, Vivi thought it would be better to explain to him first what was going on, as he was the more "dangerous" one. Besides, she didn't need to keep any secrets from him, and Zoro was pretty sure this man wasn't one of the few that knew pirates had actually helped Vivi save her country.

"I'm sorry Mr. Bushido," Vivi apologized, "He doesn't really mean any harm. He just tends to jump to conclusions a little quickly. Plus I think he feels a little endebted to my father, and my father was the one who sent him with me as part of my protection. . ." Viv trailed off when she realized she was rambling, "You'll look over this, won't you?" Vivi pleaded.

Zoro's frown tightened. Vivi really sounded as if she thought he would slice this guy up. Of course, the fact that he still had his swords drawn probably wasn't helping much.

Zoro looked at Vivi, who was still pleading silently with him for his forgivness of her. . . "leader." And for some reason, Zoro felt as though he couldn't really deny her what she wanted, even if he had wanted to. Zoro didn't like this feeling very much, in fact, he didn't like it at all.

Zoro sighed and put one of his swords away so he could take the Wadu out of his mouth, "And, who the hell is he exactly?" he asked.

Vivi understood that this was as eased as Mr. Bushido was going to get before he understood the situation and Kohza put away his sword.

"Isn't that what _I_ should be asking her?" Kohza asked.

Zoro scowled at the man standing behind Vivi. He really wasn't getting off on the right foot with this man, but somehow Zoro felt as if this man had wronged him, or someone close to him before, which of course, wan't helping Zoro like him any better.

Vivi turned on the man she called leader. Zoro had never seen Vivi fight with anyone, or even argue with them, and that was saying alot after she had been stuck on the Going Merry with someone like THEIR captain, so he was surprised when Vivi snapped at the man standing behind her.

"If you'd wait a moment leader, I'll properly explain to BOTH of you!" Vivi snapped, "Now put your sword away before we draw any more of a crowd."

"He's still got his swords out," Kohza protested.

"Mr. Bushido won't put his swords away until the threat is gone and right now, that's you and your sword. Put it away," Vivi responded.

The "leader" paused for a moment, eyeballing Zoro to make sure he didn't try to pull anything funny, then finally did as Vivi told him and slowly slid his long sword back into it's sheath. After he finished, Zoro followed suit.

Vivi sighed, "Now, first things first. Mr. Bushido, this is Kohza. You remember Uncle Toto from Yuba? This is his son."

"He's met my FATHER!" Kohza interrupted.

Vivi frowned at him and decided to ignore his rude outburst, "And, Kohza, this is Mr. Bu-- I mean Roronoa Zoro, he's a nakama of mine that I met during those two years I was gone from Alabasta," she introduced.

And that was when Zoro realized why this man seemed familiar. Hadn't that old man Toto's son been the rebel leader in charge of bringing down Vivi, her father, and her country? No wonder he felt this man had wronged a friend of his! How could the king let Vivi travel with someone who had tried to destroy them? Now Zoro really didn't trust this guy. How on earth could Vivi trust him?

Zoro realized Kohza was eyeballing him with much of the same distaste and mistrust. And Zoro wondered if this "Kohza" knew if he was a pirate. But Zoro didn't think Vivi would have told this man his real name if she thought he knew Zoro was a pirate or if she felt she couldn't trust him with this information. Perhaps Kohza just thought Zoro looked suspicious. How many people who walk around with three swords would you trust right away?

"We're in Eden for the King's Gathering," Vivi told Zoro, bringing him out of his thoughts.

So that's why the rebel leader was with the princess. He was here to show the world government everything was well and good between the Alabastan monarchy and the rebels.

Vivi gasped, "Oh, that's right. Mr. Bushido, you don't know. Pell, he --"

But there was no need to finish, the person in question flew down, seemingly out of nowhere.

"I see you found Carue Vivi-sama, so let's get going. We're quite late and we already look bad as it is, I'm sure, Pell said, then spotted Zoro and was suddenly all smiles, "What a stroke of good fortune. The pi- I mean swordsman that helped us so much in Alabasta is here. Long time no see, how have you been, uh, Roronoa-san, wasn't it?" Pell asked.

Zoro knodded, entierly stunned, "I'm great, but shouldn't I be asking you how you are? It's almost like I'm seeing a ghost right now," Zoro mused.

"Yes, well I'm afraid I didn't make it back into Alubarna until after you and your group had left. But it's good to see you in good heatlh as well. I can't even being to relate to how much Vivi-sama has been worried about you," Pell smiled at Zoro.

Zoro smiled in return and it seemed to get wider when he realized Vivi had turned a light shade of red.

"Everyone in Alabasta has been worried." Vivi said trying to hide her embarassment, "About all of you I mean,"

Kohza wasn't liking this one bit. Even Pell was forgetting his duties in front of this man. It was time to end it.

"Vivi, Pell, we ARE late. Souldn't we be going now?" Kohza asked. They had a job to do for the country and Kohza was going to see to it that it was done.

Vivi frowned at him despite the fact he was right. Kohza always had somewhat of a problem looking past his first impression of people.

"I'm sorry to say he's right, Vivi-sama. As good as it is to see Roronoa-san again, we really should be going," Pell sombered.

"I know," Vivi said sadly, then smiled just as sadly at Zoro, "Tell Luffy-san and the others that I said hello, and that I hope they stay well," she said.

Zoro nodded then watched as Vivi and her group turned to leave. He frowned, that bastard rebel leader was sure in a hurry to get rid of him, wasn't he? Zoro didn't trust this any further then he could through him, well, less, because Zoro could throw him pretty far. It would probably be better to say he didn't trust the rebel leader any father than Usoppu could through him

Then a great idea struck him.

"OI! Vivi!" Zoro shouted.

The group turned and Zoro could see, plain as day, that the rebel leader was not happy.

"Oi. . ." Kohza muttered under his breath, feeling somewhat insulted that this man would talk to her so casually.

Zoro jerked his head, indicating that he wanted Vivi to come over to him. Vivi ran up without hesitation.

Kohza was flat out astonished that Pell was allowing this to go on, then he heard Vivi laugh and nod, "Sure, why not? Besides I'd be delighted to see them again," she said.

Kohza and Pell exchanged glances for a moment before turning their heads back in time to see the both of them walking toward them.

"Vivi--" Kohza began but Vivi interrupted him.

"Mr. Bushido is coming with us," Vivi said.

And for some reason, Kohza noted that _this_ did freak Pell out.

"Vivi-sama!--" Pell started.

"In disguise, of course," Vivi said to Pell.

"But Vivi-sa--"

"Pell! We are from the desert country Alabasta. There is nothing odd with having a member if the royal gaurd with us who happens to be wearing a headwrap that is covering his face."

The stern look on Vivi's face told Pell this conversation was over, but Kohza never did know when to shut up when it came to Vivi.

"Vivi! We can't just bring some guy into the world government building with us. We don't even know if we can trust him," Kohza argued.

Vivi flashed him a dirty look.

"No, we can trust him," Pell said, "We already have. I'd bet all of Alabasta on this man and his nakama."

"As would I," Vivi said, "Because I've already done it once, and wasn't disappionted."

Kohza opened his mouth again, but Vivi wouldn't budge.

"He's coming even if we have to leave you behind to bring him," Vivi insisted.

Kohza frowned at her and Zoro smirked.

"A princess's orders are absolute to the people of her country, just as a captain's are to his crew," Zoro said and the group moved ahead. Kohza followed behind reluctantly.

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Surprisingly enough it seemed that Vivi was right about there being no problem with Zoro's presence. With the head wrap and his face covered he was virtually unregonizable.

Pell sighed. He understood Vivi wanting to see the pirates again but allowing one of them, one of the ones with a wanted poster none-the-less, into the King's meeting in order to do it was just reckless. Whether she was right about them regonizing them or not.

At least he wasn't much trouble. Zoro stood quietly next to Pell directly behind Kohza and Vivi, who were sitting at the long table and taking part in the King's meeting, and just observed everything going on.

But what Zoro was actually observing Pell didn't notice. Zoro was watching a man down the table. This man looked normal enough but, for a king anyway, but what Zoro didn't like about this man was that from the time they had arrived to the very second that they were on, this man hadn't taken his eyes off of Vivi. Not once. And what made Zoro even more suspicious is that when this man across the table was looking at her he looked just like Luffy when he was heading for a pieace of meat. All hunger and no sense. Like he was an animal hunting his prey.

The mention of the word Alabasta by the main announcer during the meeting brought Zoro out of his thoughts but wasn't enough to make Zoro that his eyes off this yarou.

"Which brings us to our recent event in Alabasta!" said one of the older kings that had been appointed announcer, "We have the princess here with us today instead of the king. And I believe it is on all our minds when we say congradulations for being able to subdue an entire rebellion on your own."

"Oh! I can't take credit for doing it on my own I had some help from friends," Vivi said and her gaze darted to Zoro for just a second.

"But are we absolutly sure that the rebellion in Alabasta is over with?" The elderly king asked, "Can you be sure that there will be no more rebellions?"

"Well that's why I have a guest here with me today. The man sitting next to me is the rebel leader," Vivi indicated Kohza and there was a hushed whisper throughout the crowd, "He's here to reassure you that there will be no more rebellion on his part."

Kohza stood but kept his head bowed, showing the others that he was respecting them but he was not to be taken lightly, "The rebellion on our part was a mistake," He said clearly, "It was insinuated by a horrible man with a horrible cause and we realize that now. We have nothing against the King of Alabasta or the rest of the monarcy."

Another hushed whisper went around the table and the elderly king nodded at Kohza indicating that everyone understood and that he could sit down, "Well, if that's all the questions for Alabasta we can move on to other things..." the King continued.

The meeting dragged on and on and all the while Vivi was unaware of the yarou just down the table continuing to look at her as though she was food. Zoro was really begining to get sick of this guy.

"Hey!" Zoro whispered to Pell as the old King announcer was reading his finishing statements for the meeting, "Who is that yarou down across the table there?" he asked Pell, nodding toward the man he was indicating.

Pell looked around Zoro in order to see who he was talking about, "Hmm, that's odd." he said more to himself rather than to Zoro.

"What?" Zoro asked.

"Oh, it's nothing much. That's the Prince of Insula, Brutus Horatius. The only thing is that it's odd he is here. Usually his father comes." Pell explained.

"I see, " Zoro said and turned his attention back to the man as the meeting broke up and the royalty left to the outside gardens to mingle.

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Dear King Kobra,

Due to the recent dissappearence of the King of Insula, we would like to inform you that his son, Brutus Horatius will be taking his place at the king's meeting. We will be informing you and the rest of the King's in hopes that you will al welcome him to the meeting. Thank you.

Signed,

The World Governement

Authors Note pt.2: Thanks so much for reading. Reveiw and let me know what you think! Thanks so much. Next update will be on Nov. 11! Otanoshimini!


	3. Chapter 03 The Ship of Fools

An Old Cliche:

the desert's rose

Chapter 03 - The Ship of Fools

By: L.R. Pelgina

and Starfirehime

Authors Note: HAPPY BIRTHDAY RORONOA ZORO! Here is my present tothe swordsman of the Muguiwaradan! An all plot revealing chapter of my story! Oh my! I hope this answers everyone's questions about the last chapter. If there's still any questions left floating out there afterword let me know and I'll do my best to answer in later chapters, so long as it doesn't give to much away anyhow. Also I'm doing my best to lay off the Japanese for those of you who don't know any, so if there's something you don't understand or if you want me to try and lay off more let me know So, thanks and reveiw damn it! I know alot more people are looking at this then are reveiwing! My stats say so! 

Reveiwer responses: Hehe! This is my first time ever responding to reveiwers! 

Vivi: Hehe! I so didn't pick the update day on purpose...In fact I was just trying to update every Friday. I didn't notice it was going to be on Zoro's Birthday until you said something. What a coincidence, ne? Anyhow! I'm glad to see there's a ZoroxVivi nut out there as crazy as I am. Especially as it's hard to find stuff on them in the American websites. (They are actually quite a popular pairing in Japan, I had to go to a bunch of Japanese sights in order to find any fanart of them). Please keep reading! And the ZoroxVivi romantics will come over time! I have got about 40 chapters planned out for this fic after all! Oh, and my friend who kinda likes the ZoroxVivi will be posting a one-shot for them soon. Please read hers and reveiw it as well.

Narutosgirl: Thank you for reading and reveiwing. I appriciate your compliments on my story. As for your request, I'm not really into that pairig but there are actually going to be some small SanjixVivi things happen in this fanfic! In the next chapter in fact...and later on in the story as well. But, even though I'm not to into the pairing I will see what I can do for you! I'll do my best!

chibihearts: Thank you for your reveiw and letting me know how I'm doing on my writing skills. I'm always over paranoied about that! I always hate my own writing style! Oh! And Vivi's response to Robin will be in the next chapter. Thanks again!

Nami-swan: Yea! You like all the same pairings I do! Don't worry I'll keep up the SanjixNami stuff. My friend Starfirehime won't let me forget! 

tori007otaku: Woot! Another SanjixNami fan! Those two are awesome aren't they! There are actually some stuff on them at the end of thsi chapter. I hope you like it. And, just how far have you gotten in the series. Let me know so I can figure out what characters you don't know about and then I can be a bit more discriptive about them. And also try not to put in to many spoilers (unless of course you want them ), because I've seen up to episode 233, and I don't want to give to much away for anyone unless the want me to! Thank you for your reveiwing AND putting me on alerts! You made me feel so special, your the first person to have done that!

Disclaimer: Besides the villians I create I don't own any of this! I don't want Oda-sensei to get me for copyrights.

Vivi shuffled out of the main meeting hall eager to get out of the after meeting mingling as soon as she could so she could hurry and see the rest of her nakama again. Needless to say she didn't have much of a temper for anyone who stopped her to congratulate her on saving her country. In her exciment she even got herself seperated from her guardians who were all stopped by various other people to be congratulated as well.

Zoro of course didn't like being stopped at the moment either. He had lost track of the yarou from before and didn't really want to lose track of Vivi. So, Zoro decided it would probably be best to take in his surroundings first, find everyone.

Pell was talking with the old king that had done the announcing, probably reassuring any extra doubt this man might have held onto despite the rebel leader's speech. The Kohza-yarou was not to far away from him also being questioned by some short happy looking fellow who was shaking his hand as if he were the king of Alabasta himself. And Vivi?

Ah, there she was. Vivi was about a hundred meters or so in front of Zoro. Considering that there was a lot of people in his way Zoro could politely reach her in a matter of a minute or two. But soon Zoro knew even that wouldn't be soon enough. The yarou from the table whom he had lost track of earlier was now right behind Vivi and reaching out his hand to grab her.

Kohza saw it too, and despite the fact that he didn't know anything about the man heading for Vivi (hey, he could be an old friend of Vivi's for all he knew, she certainly seemed to have a lot of them he didn't know about) he had a bad feeling about this man. And so he and Zoro both started to rush towards her as fast as they could through the crowd of people.

Vivi was blissfully unaware of the situation unfolding just behind her. She didn't notice the man strolling up behind her, for if she had she surely woundn't have left the side of her companions. She did notice however when the Prince of Insula grabbed her arm and spun her around rather harshly.

"Ah, Princess Vivi. Long time no see huh?" he sneered down at her shocked and then horrified face.

"Horatius!" Vivi rasped in fear, "Why are you--"

But she never got to finish her sentence because he pulled brutally her away to a more secluded area of the garden in the king's meeting house.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

"How do you like my new firework?" Usoppu bragged holding out his small bomb in front of Chopper.

"Is there supposed to be something special about it?" Chopper asked, suspicious that Usoppu might be trying to fool him again.

Usoppu laughed arrogantly, signifing that it was indeed something to be proud of, "Well, it may look small and wimpy but in truth," Usoppu paused and leaned in closer to Chopper in order whisper into his ear, "I could blow up this whole island with it if I wanted to."

"You have such a dangerous thing," Chopper shrieked.

Usoppu laughed, "Of course! Only a genius like myself could make such a wonderful bomb!"

Chopper gasped, amazed.

Usoppu laughed again, he could always get Chopper to believe him.

"If I decided to right now--" Usoppu raised his hand with the bomb in it, "I could throw it down and destroy us all."

"EEEEEEE!" Chopper shouted, "Yor kidding right? It can't be true. You wouldn't destroy us would you?"

Usoppu smiled and shrugged, "I don't know that depends," he smirked.

Chopper was about to say something in return to it but something very familiar caught his noise. He stopped and detected the scent was coming from a large building just in front of them.

"Usoppu?" Chopper questioned interrupting the sniper of his rambling mid-sentence, "Do you think Nami could get into that building ahead of us?"

Usoppu walked up next to his small friend and looked at the building through his goggles, "I doubt she would try." he finally said, "There's Marines crawling all over that place. Why?"

"Do you remember if Nami put on her perfume from Alabasta today?"

"How would I know something like that? Maybe if you asked Sanji--"

"I smell the perfume coming from that building," Chopper said, interrupting Usoppu again.

Usoppu sighed, "It's probably just some tourists from Alabasta, right? Nothing to be worried about." he said trying to reassure Chopper.

"Hmmm, but I have a funny feeling about this," Chopper said.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

After they had turned a few corners and had reached a more secluded part of the garden, Brutus Horatius roughly swung the Princess of Alabasta back around to face him again, slamming her into a wall in the process.

"My my, Princess Vivi, haven't you grown up into a fine young women," he sneered down at her, making it perfectly obvious what exactly he had meant.

Vivi tried to wrench her arm free from his grasp but it only made him hold on tighter.

"I became sooo worried when you disappeared from your country three years ago." he smirked as he looked down at her angry yet terrified face, and reached up his free hand to run his index and middle finger down her cheek, "Did you keep yourself pure for me all this time Vivi dear? After all you ARE going to be my wife one day, even if it's the last thing I do." he said then placed his thumb on the other side of her face in order to force her mouth open then leaned in for a kiss.

Kohza had noticed that scumbag looking at Vivi oddly from down the table but he hadn't said anything. He didn't want to alarm Vivi especially since she had been through enough these past few months. Pell didn't seem to notice anything odd, although, as great a worrior Pell was he only fought with guns, so he was never trained to try and read a man's aura, thoughts, or emotions. Kohza was pretty sure that the swordsman that Vivi knew had noticed something as well, but it was hard to read anything off of him, as much as he hated to admit it at the moment this man was probably a really great swordsman. Probably one of the best. But whether he had noticed or not the swordsman hadn't said anything either, and now they had some prick trying to kidnap Vivi.

Kohza turned a corner he had seen Vivi and her kidnapper go and reached it just in time to see that bastard leaning in to force a kiss on her, "Che," He muttered and ran forward to stop the asshole then stomp him into the ground for touching his princess when the swordsman beat him to it.

Seemingly out of nowhere the swordsmans boot was where the kidnappers face was just a second ago and the kidnapper was lying on the ground with a large boot print indented on his face. The swordsman had every sword drawn and had even manged the time to take off his facial garb and slip a bandana over his head. And all Kohza could do was wonder how on earth this man had made it here so fast. Kohza ran over to the two of them and help up his princess. He could feel the heat of this man's aura from a couple of feet behind him and boy was this swordsman pissed.

"I HATE assholes like this yarou," Zoro muttered through his sword, "Sadly he's not completely out yet."

And just as he said that the man started to stir. Kohza began to pull out his sword and that's when Zoro looked at the two people behind him, but only for a second.

"Vivi, are you ok?" Zoro asked.

"Eh," Vivi said, suddenly finding her voice again, "That's good because we have company too."

And with that a tall, pretty, woman with long white hair and and an even taller man with slicked back jet black hair came out from behind two white pillars behind Kohza, Vivi, and Zoro. As the woman took out a long spear like sword Kohza finished drawing his own and prepared himself. Vivi too began to reach for her peacock slashers.

A faint laughter came from the man laying on the ground and Zoro turned his attention back to the prince lying on the ground. Horatius sat up, put a hand to the side of his mouth that was bleeding and spit out a tooth. The prince laughed again then licked the blood off the side of his mouth.

"Very good Mr. Swordsman," the Prince said, "Even **_I _**didn't see that one coming." he said and stood up the rest of the way.

Zoro ignored the complement.

The Prince rose his hand slightly and the two lackies that were with him moved in closer towards Kohza and Vivi, encircling the three of them. The Prince then reached for a sword behind his back that only Zoro had noticed before and --

"Vivi-sama?" Pell was in sight now and a bunch of onlookers that had probably heard some of the commotion were following just behind him.

The Prince of Insula waved a hand and his two lackies were gone in an instant. Horatius then smirked, "I won't cause a scene in front of all these kingdoms," he said, "But mark my words Princess Vivi, as soon as you leave here you will be followed by my men until you are caught and I have made you mine!" he said then turned his back and walked the other way, "Keep your eyes on your Princess," he said to Pell as he walked past him, "Or you may lose her," and then he continued on to go mingle and guarantee the other kingdoms nothing had been going on.

Zoro watched him as he slowly walked away and waited until the Prince was past Pell before he put away his swords. Kohza and Vivi followed suit.

"Vivi, who was that man?" Kohza asked after what seemed like an eternity of silence between the three of them and the newly joined Pell.

Vivi opened her mouth to respond but Zoro interuppted, "That can wait until later, we need to leave now before he gets the chance to call for more back ups," he said and began to walk towards the exit, grabbing Vivi in the process. Pell followed without hesitation and after a second Kohza followed to, believeing the swordsman was right for once, whether he liked it or not.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Usoppu and Chopper continued to watch the building that Chopper had caught the smell in. Despite Usoppu's attempt to reassure him that it was nothing they needed to be worried about Chopper insisted on staying due to the bad feeling in his gut.

Usoppu sighed and sat on the steps to the large building finally giving up when an idea hit Chopper, "Say! Didn't Vivi say that Eden was the island were all the king's meet together?" Chopper asked.

"Yeah. And?"

"Wouldn't it be exciting if we could run into Vivi here?" Chopper said hopefully.

Usoppu snorted, "Do you know what the chances of that ar--" he began but was interuppeted suddenly and rudly by a pair of people running down the steps who bumped into him and knocked him over but continued to run.

"What the hell!" Usoppu yelled when the words died in his throat and he stood. Chopper then said what was on his mind.

"VIVI!" They both shoated at the same time.

Vivi was running along behind Zoro who seemed to be pulling her. Pell (who it was also a shock to see), a very confused Carue who had only recently run into them, and another man were running close behind. Vivi fortunatly looked back when she heard her name.

"Mr. Bushido! It's Usoppu-san and Toni-kun!" she said.

Zoro looked but didn't stop, "USOPPU! CHOPPER! HURRY UP AND FOLLOW!" he shouted.

Usoppu was too shocked to say anything but Chopper sprang into instant action grabbed Usoppu and followed Zoro and the others without question.

After Zoro decided that they had really lost everyone he finally stopped. The rest stopped just behind him where they came up with a plan. Pell would take Carue back to the Alabastian boat (Carue to give the gize that Vivi was with him) and act as a distraction while Vivi once again would be put into the care of the Luffy pirates who would once again bring her back to Alabasta once she was safe, and Kohza would be coming with her because he wasn't about to leave her alone with a bunch of people who he had just found out were pirates.

Vivi then said her goodbyes to Pell and Carue. Pell made her promise to return safe so he too could one day learn what exactly was going on and then they were off. Afterword Zoro, Chopper, and Usoppu agreed it would probably also be best if they didn't set out until early moring despite promising their nakama that they would be back by nightfall. Another boat (because they had disgused it before they landed of course) that sailed out right after the Alabasta boat might look suspicious. So they would stay the night in the city then meet up with the nakama in the morning. After they had found a hotel to stay in it was finally time for Vivi to spill. Who was this asshole and what was going on?

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Vivi sat on the bed in her hotel room and sighed as all of her compaions gathered around her. Where could she start.

"About a year before I left Alabasta in order to look up Crocodile and his intentions, the King of Insula, Brutus Vorenus, set up a royal meeting with my father. Well, my Father gladly accepted the meeting with this King as he was an old friend of my father's. Sadly he didn't know what the meeting was about until after the King arrived. It turned out that the King of Insula wanted to involve me in an arranged marraige with his son, Brutus Horatius" Vivi began.

"What! Your FATHER put you into an arranged marriage!How old were you then! Like! 14!" Kohza shouted, he couldn't believe Kobra would do that.

"Well, no. After my Father figured out what was going on he politly turned down the King saying he wished me to be able to pick my own husband."

Kohza sighed in relief and Usoppu could have sworn he heard Zoro sigh too.

"And I guess naturally the King of Insula, didn't like that much, huh?" Zoro said smirking.

"Well, actually he was offering it as a favor to my father. If I was married to the Prince of Insula the King could then merge the two contries as one and help us by sending us supplies. Naturally it was a hard choice for my father because if he had he could have saved a lot of people."

Kohza sighed again. This made him feel even worse about the rebellion. He had snapped at the King many times and told Kobra he didn't care about his country when he had actually considered selling out his daughters happiness in order to save it.

"I even offered to do it myself," Vivi continued, "But my father wouldn't have it. The King of Insula took the turn down quite well but for some reason the Prince did not. Apparently he had some fascination with Alabasta and was dead set on getting it and me as his bride. After that I had set out to track down Crocodile but apparently while I was gone my Father got a bunch of threatening notes from the prince promising to take me and the country from him. I had never heard of any of this before I got back to Alabasta after the rebellion. But my father ended up telling me about it because not long after you guys left," she indicated the members of the Mugiwaradan sitting in front of her, "Someone who turned out to be one of his henchmen tried to kidnapp me. Thankfully he wasn't very strong and I was able to defeat him myself,"

"But wouldn't I have read something in the newspaper if you had almost been kidnapped?" Kohza said, "And wouldn't Pell know something about this?"

Vivi shook her head, "No, Father and I only told Chaka who took care of the imprisionment and informed the King of Insula about what had happened discretly. He promised he would take care of it quietly. This is why he sent you with me as extra protection Kohza. He knew he could trust you and that you would be willing to help out your country. Otherwise I would have gone only with Pell." she answered.

That stung. "But WHY!" Kohza said, "If you guys had made it public then you could have had more people watching your back!"

"Our country had just calmed down after a rebellion! Do you really think we wanted to stir it up again with insecurites of their princess getting kidnapped!" Vivi shouted, this had been one of the major reasons why she hadn't gone with the Mugiwaradan when they left her country, she couldn't throw it into turmoil again! No matter what happiness it might cost her!

"Then why not bring more then just Pell and me!" Kohza shouted back, "Why not me, Chaka, Pell, and Iguram too!"

"How many times do I have to say we were trying not to alert people! How would it look if I had strolled into the King's meeting with everyone of our protecters with me, or with the rebellion leader none-the-less! They wouldn't have trusted you then! Beside who would protect the country while they were all gone! It's not just ME that Horatius wants!"

"But YOU'RE more important!" Kohza shouted then bit his lip when he realized what he had said.

"I am NOT more important then a whole country filled with people!" Vivi said stunned.

"That's not what I meant."

"Then what did yo--"

"ENOUGH!" Zoro shouted, "You don't call the shots in Alabasta sideburns, so get over it!" he yelled.

Usoppu and Chopper exchanged glances.

"It's been a long day and I'm tired of all this crap! Let's go to bed." Zoro said and shuffled everyone out of Vivi's room.

Usoppu and Chopper went into the room that the boys had next door but Kohza stood in front of Vivi's door.

"What are you doing?" Zoro asked him.

"Watching to make sure no one tries to sneak in," Kohza said eyeballing the present Mugiwaradan to let them all know he didn't just mean the enemies.

Zoro smirked, "Good idea," he said then open Vivi's door and walked in.

"What are YOU doing!" Kohza demanded.

"Making sure no one sneaks in through her window. Goodnight," Zoro sneered and began to close the door.

"Vivi?" Kohza questioned, indignified.

"It's fine, Leader. Goodnight." She said and Zoro closed the door.

Zoro sat infront of Vivi's window and got into a sleeping position then bowed his head to sleep.

"Your not just in here to make sure no one gets in, are you?" Vivi asked.

Zoro shook his head, "I know you think your're burdening us again. I also know your thinking about leaving on your own," he said without so much as opening an eye, "Don't even try it."

Vivi sighed knowing he was right, "In any case I'm really happy to see you all again." she smiled.

Zoro opened one eye for that, then closed it and smiled back, "Goodnight," he said.

"Goodnight," Vivi replied the went to sleep herself.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Sanji passed out breakfast to all the crew members, paying special attention to Robin's and EXTRA special attention to Nami's.

"Still no sight on the Crap swordsman and the others?" Sanji asked Nami as he handed her her breakfast.

"Nope, nothing! Luffy's going bonkers because he wants to move on so badly," Nami said and sighed, "I guess he's had his fill of this island already."

"Probably because he's been banned from all of the restraunts on the island already," Sanji snickered and even Nami couldn't stiffle her giggle completely on that one.

Sanji was elated! He had made Nami laugh. He instantly turned lovey-dovey and sprouted little red hearts out of nowhere.

"Nami-SWAAAAN! Do you love me now?" He gleamed and reached out to embrace her but got a punch in the face instead.

"Mou, he sure knows how to kill a moment," She muttered quietly to herself so he wouldn't hear, and then looked back through the binoculars to search for the others, and that's when she saw them. But her eyes had be playing tricks on her, or else the binoculars were broken.

"Sanji-kun they're back! AND VIVI'S WITH THEM!" Nami shouted.

Sanji instantly got up from his crumpled position on the floor, "NANI? VIVI-CHWAAN! Sonna Nami-swan you shouldn't play tricks on me." he whined.

Nami rolled her eyes and shoved his face into the binoculars so he could see for himself.

"HONTOU! IT'S VIVI-CHWAN" he shouted and ran like a madman towards the end of the boat to wait.

Nami groaned to herself and went to inform Luffy, who pretty much had the same reaction as Sanji only with less little red hearts involved. And so Nami went to go wait with them.

When Vivi got within sight she ran up and instantly threw her arms around Nami. She was crying again which made Nami want to cry too.

"I missed you so much Nami-san!"

She then turned her attention to Luffy and hugged him too, who gave out his usual laugh. And last was Sanji, who held out his arms and spewed red hearts galore but Vivi didn't care, she was just glad to see him. She went to hug him but Zoro grabbed her and dragged her on the boat before she could.

"All right that's enough of that, we haven't got the time for this," he said.

Sanji fell foward, stunned, into a pile of his own little red hearts, but was up again in a second.

"ZORO! YOU BASTARD! I DIDN'T GET MY HUG!"

"Is she coming with us this time?" Luffy asked.

"It's a long story we'll explain on the ship," Usoppu said as he and Chopper climbed into the Going Merry.

When Kohza began to climb up as well, an already pissed Sanji went all out.

"AND WHO THE HELL IS THAT?" Sanji shouted.

"Like I said, we'll explain after we set sail."

"Oh! Zoro did you find me a musician?"

"LIKE HELL I'LL BECOME A PIRATE!" Kohza shouted.

After a large fight between everyone they all managed to get on the boat somehow. They all assumed they had been unseen but Insula's information network was a lot better than that.

Zoro and the other's were finally able to explain what was going on. Vivi introduced Kohza as Toto's son and suddenly Luffy and everyone else was very pleased to meet him. Kohza of course was shocked to learn that his Father had met all of these Pirates, knew Vivi was with them the two years she was gone and hadn't told him a thing. He then vowed to himself to beat up the old man when he got home.

"So your the infamous Kohza," Nami said and shook his hand.

"And you know me, how?"

"Oh, Vivi told me the story about you and your little scar there. Weren't you such a sweeet kid leader." she smirked then slapped him on the back.

Zoro made a mental note to force that story out of Nami.

Kohza was instantly happy that Vivi had actually talked about him and instantly turned his foul mood into a slightly better one. That was until they ran into another boat with a loud smack!

"What was that? That ship came out of nowhere," Nami wondered out loud.

Luffy ran over to investigate. The ship was old an rotten and had a mysterious fog swarming around it.

"It must be a ghost ship or something," Kohza said looking over the side as well.

Luffy was instantly excited, whereas Usoppu was instantly alarmed.

"SUGE!" Luffy shouted, "Let's go investigate!"

Authors Note pt.2: For those of you wondering about Robin she's reading intently and will emerge when she hears the smack of hitting the other boat in the very next chapter. Who else will read the anciant incriptions on the ghost ship? Thanks so much for reading. Reveiw and let me know what you think! Thanks again. Next update will be on Nov. 18! Otanoshimini! HAPPY BIRTHDAY ZORO!


	4. Chapter 04 GHOST SHIP

An Old Cliche:

the desert's rose

Chapter 04 - GHOST SHIP

By: L.R. Pelgina

and Starfirehime

Authors Note: bows humblely I AM SOOOOO FREAKING SORRY THIS IS LATE AND SHORT! Harry Potter movie #4 came out this weekend, plus a bunch of other crap happened in my life this week so I had to spilt this chapter into two! The next one will be longer and be on time! I PROMISE! Again I am sooooo SORRY! I beg for forgivness! Thanks so very very much and, Reveiw damn it!

Reveiwer responses: It seems I lost a few reviwers...what the hell happened?

tori007otaku: YEA! I love you and your awesome "rocking of socks" saying and what not! You rule! Thanks so much for reveiwing again and taking the time to read my story! And believe me it's no problem describing who characters are for you! I would feel really bad if I didn't actually! Sorry this is late! Lyra will iron her hands in apology!

Chibi-Hearts: Yes! We should ALL believe Chopper more shouldn't we. He is after all the best freaking most greatest person in one piece!

Nami-swan: I'll just have to keep the Sanji and Nami moments rolling won't I? I'm getting more reveiws from SanjixNami fans than anyone else! Thanks for reveiwing!

Vivi: Yes finding ZoroXVivi fanart IS a pain! But that what makes it so great when you actually find them! and I wouldn't know if I have any links you don't, I don't know what links you have! I'll see if I can't post a good one though. http/ kurotora.lad.jp/aotsuki/link/zv .html That's a place with a bunch of links! MAke sure you don't leave any spaces when you type it into your computer for a URL though or it won't work! If it doesn't show up I'll post it as my hompage so you can go check it out! Good luck! And I actually like Kohza quite a lot! To me he's a great guy put he just tends to bring himself off as an asshole half the time until you get to know him! I've actually been thinking I should make him a bit nicer before I upset some Kohza fans...but to me a writter should always write the characters as they would act! Not how they want them to act! And to me this is how Kohza would act in this situation! But it's alright if you hate him, I won't hold it against you! My friend Starfirehime hates him too! It IS a matter of tastes after all, ne?

InuBecka: Goodness there ARE KohzaxVivi fans actually reading this! I understand completely and let me explain! I had intended there to be a bit more KohzaxVivi in this fanfic but all I get reveiws from are ZoroxVivi fans (and SanjixNami)! So I play out to my reveiws! If no KohzaxVivi fans are reading of course I'm going to put less KohzaxVivi! So let me put it this way (and this goes for SanjixNami and LuffyxRobin fans as well) the more reveiwers I get supporting a couple in my jurisdiction (i.e. ZoroxVivi, KohzaxVivi, SanjixNami, LuffyxRobin) the more I will try to fit moments for them in there! But remember this is also a ZoroxVivi fic so there will be some of that as well! ALWAYS! But same goes for KohzaxVivi! It is a KohzaxVivi fic as well so there will be a lot of that! BUT ONLY IF I GET REVEIWERS FOR THEM! You are the first so say something so I thank you! Please reveiw again if you wish for the KohzaxVivi to continue!

Vivi again: I apologize for not updating on time! A lot of things have happened this week!

Disclaimer: Besides the villians I create I don't own any of this! I don't want Oda-sensei to get me for copyrights.

"Luffy you idiot we haven't even decided what to do about poor Vivi-chan's situation yet and you want to go and investiage some rotten piece of driftwood that calls itself a ship? Consider your priorites!" Sanji protested.

Luffy stared at Sanji blankly for a moment, as if considering Sanji's opinion.

"OK!"

Everyone sighed in relief, they were sure Luffy was going to respond with something stupid.

"We're going to go investigate!"

"WERE YOU EVEN LISTENING TO ME?" Sanji demanded.

Luffy waived him off casually, "We'll talk about that when we get back!" Luffy insisted, "Let's go see what's in the ship! Right? Vivi? You wanna see too right?" he tempted.

Vivi smiled, she was so glad to be with her nakama again, "Eh, we'll talk about it when we get back! It can wait half a day or so!" She said.

"But--"Kohza began, but Vivi killed his protest with a look.

"We're all tired and need a break from all the turmoil of yesterday in order to properly put our heads together and come up with a solution," Vivi said, "And this may just be the break we need."

Luffy smiled, "GREAT! Then somebody go get Robin!" he said.

Nami, Zoro, and Sanji all gasped at the same time. All three coming to the same realization. Vivi didn't know Robin had joined them after leaving the Baroque Works!

"WAI--" they all began to yell but it was too late.

"ROBIN! GET UP HERE! WE'RE GOING SOMEWHERE!" Usoppu yelled down the cabin.

Nami spun around to face Vivi, "Vivi! There's something that we need to explain before--" but Nami didn't get to finish.

"Ara. If it isn't Miss Wednesday." Robin said as she emerged from the bottom cabin.

Vivi's face went blank then white all in a matter of seconds, "Mi-- MISS ALLSUNDAY!" she paniked.

Kohza's sword was out in an instant. He remembered her from the palace the day of the rebellion. What the hell was she doing on the boat with the pirates that helped bring that orginization down?

Kohza was began to charge out her when he realized his sword was no longer in his hands. He had enough time to see that the strawhat man had it before he fell face first onto the boat. The swordsman had tripped him.

Nami now had ahold of Vivi and was trying to reassure Vivi that Robin was now a fellow nakama and would cause Vivi no harm. Vivi however was not responding to her reassurences.

Kohza however was a lot quicker to act. If these pirates had betrayed Vivi and decided to join the orginization that had tried to conquer Alabasta then it was up to him to protect the princess now! More important then that, it was up to him to protect someone who was very important to him. Kohza summersaulted and pulled out the pieces of his secret weapon. He put the rifle together in record time and pointed it at the pirate closest to Vivi, the female pirate.

"Get away from the princess," Kohza demanded and instanly felt the air tense up. The swordsman, the strawhat, and the man with the weird eyebrow were all ready to massacure him at the drop of a hat, but were hesitant to move due to worry of him hitting their friend.

Kohza could tell from their auras alone he would be no match for any of these men, but so long as Vivi made it out ok then it didn't matter. Despite that Robin didn't have to move to knock the gun out of his hands. Robin was about to make a move but the princess herself interrupted.

"Leader! Put that away!" Vivi shouted, her face was showing no emotion.

Kohza couldn't believe what he was hearing, "But...Vivi--" he started.

"If she's with them then leave it alone." Vivi said and stood up slowly and walked over to him and grabbed the end of his rifle and forced it down, "But don't ever point a gun at one of my nakama again."

Zoro visably relax and Luffy audibly sighed. Sanji however didn't want this atrocity to go unpunished. How dare this man point a gun at Nami-san. Sanji began to stride over in Kohza's direction but Zoro put up a hand to stop him.

"Let Vivi handle this. You'll only make this worse." Zoro said

Sanji didn't like it but Zoro was right and Sanji let it go, for now.

Vivi stood up and brought Kohza with her, and it took Kohza a moment to realize she was shaking. Wihout letting go of him Vivi walked up to the end of the boat where Luffy stood.

"You can return his sword Luffy," Vivi said, "He won't do this again."

Luffy looked at Vivi for a moment then handed Kohza back his sword. Kohza put it and his rifle away quickly. Vivi would still not let go of Kohza's arm and she was still shaking slightly.

"Vivi--" Nami began.

"So let's get on this ghost ship," Vivi said in an obviously fake-happy tone.

Luffy looked at her he wasn't smiling no one was, but Luffy complied to her request.

"Alright," Luffy said and stretched up to the top of the large Ghost ship then pulled up everyone one by one after that.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

It didn't take Zoro long to notice that Vivi had quite suddenly distanced herself from the Mugiwaradan. As soon as Luffy had placed her friend sideburns on the other ship after her she and he immediatly went as far as they could to the other side of the boat without actually leaving them behind. Zoro began to wonder if Vivi wasn't planing on leaving for a different reason now.

Zoro had known something like this may happen ever since Robin had joined the crew. The Mugiwaradan had an inevitable strange stroke of luck that made sure when they left someone behind that was never the last time that they saw them, espcially with the enimes. But there was really nothing he could do about it now except make sure Vivi didn't try and leave. Despite whatever she was currently thinking about Miss AllSunday being on the boat Zoro knew that the safest place for her would be with them. So Zoro resolved to keep an eye on her, to make sure she didn't try anything funny. But despite that being what Zoro told himself he found he just really didn't want Vivi to leave. He technically never had, but that hadn't been his chioce, this time it was a little under his control.

After all the Mugiwaradan were aboard and they had anchored both of the ships they all moved into the first cabin. Inside the main cabin room was stuffy and smelled grossly of dust. The ship obviously hadn't been touched in quite some time. Robin of course was instantly intrigued. Everyone else looked around with mild interest but Robin being the wonderful historian that she was almost instantly found something worth while.

An old inscription was carved onto a very dusty side wall of the cabin. Robin tenderly brushed off the dust and read the insription to herself.

"Luffy?" Nami moaned exasperated, "There's nothing here! Can't we leave now?"

"There's adventure!" Luffy insisted, his eyes sparkling much like Chopper's do.

Nami sighed, "Nobody cares about that but you," she said.

"There's suppoused to be a treasure hidden on this boat," Robin read aload from the insription.

Nami instantly became interested in the boat, her eyes becoming berri signs, "Luffy! Lets go investigate the money, I mean the boat!" she exlaimed.

Everyone sweatdropped.

"No one cares about that but YOU!" Zoro muttered throwing Nami's words back at her.

Nami threw a scowl back and then turned her attention back to Robin, "What else does it say?" she demanded.

Robin read aload, "I, Captain Amos Kooter leave my vast fortune on my boat as I die and will set it adrift out to sea. If you are a pirate who is strong and brave enough to get to my treasure then it is all yours. To get to the treasure please hit this button," Robin stopped, the finger she had been using to point out the inscription on the wall resting just above a small button.

"Well, what are we waiting for!" Luffy exclaimed and hit the button without hesitation.

And the floor fell out from beneath them.

Authors Note pt.2: WARNING FOR SANJIxNAMI FANS: The next chapter will contain some SanjixVivi-ness! But that is solely to move along the relationship between SxN! I promise! We have to get freaking Nami jealous before she'll admit to herseld she has any feelings for our beloved Sanji-kun! So I apologize in advance! Thanks so much for reading. Reveiw and let me know what you think! Thanks again. Next update will be on Nov. 25! This time even if it KILLS me! Which it may if I don't! 


	5. Chapter 05 Kesenai Kiss Scene

An Old Cliche:

the desert's rose

Chapter 05 - Kesenai Kiss Scene

By: L.R. Pelgina

beta read by: Starfirehime

_For food and through tears - we'll always lend you a hand on our mothership_

_--Family; One Piece-Luffy Pirates_

Authors Note: Made it on time! Sorry it came a little late in the day though. It was my best friend's birthday today sooo……. I took her out! Anyway, here it is! And extra long to make up for the short one last week! Thank you everyone for reviewing, I'd tell you all that individually but apparently we're not allowed reviewer responses in our stories any more! Oh well! Here is the story with a little more ZoroxVivi moments than usual as a Happy Birthday present for my reviewer Vivi. HAPPY BIRTHDAY…early. Thank you all so much and review please!

It was pitch black and Vivi couldn't see a thing. Even if there had been light at the bottom of this ship she probably wouldn't be able to see due to all the dust they had unsettled in their fall. She of course couldn't see the dust, but she was choking on it because it was so thick. Vivi coughed then began to try and get on her feet but found it to be difficult as she was on top of a few bodies. Around her Vivi could hear the others stirring awake.

"Who the hell is on top of me?" Zoro demanded!

"Ow! Someone's leg is in my face!" Nami whined.

"Chopper! Your horns are stabbing me!" Zoro continued.

"I landed on something soft!" Luffy insisted happily.

"Is there any way to light this place?" Vivi said herself, worrying about everyone and seemingly helping her to regain her courage to speak again.

"I've got something!" Usoppu said and the sounds of him rummaging through his bag could be heard soon after. And then suddenly lights came on almost out of nowhere, "Leave it to Captain Usoppu and his amazing light dials from Skypiea!" Usoppu shouted triumphantly.

Vivi looked around, curious to see who had landed where. Usoppu had landed in a far corner, apparently he had tried to break his fall with a rope tied to his belt but it had not been long enough or he hadn't reacted fast enough because the rope now lay around him. Sanji (who had just now realized who was on him) had passed out again due to the fact Nami had landed on him, halfway anyway. They were more tangled up with his face under her legs and vice-versa. This made Vivi blush but was nothing compared to the next thing she saw.

The "soft thing" Luffy had landed on turned out to be Miss AllSunday's chest in in the midst of the darkness and his curiosity he had decided to play with the "soft things" he had landed on, and despite the current lights on he had not yet stopped.

"Sencho! If you don't mind those are mine," Robin said calmly.

Nami however saw this as an injustice to all females and quickly untangled herself from Sanji to go kick Luffy into next week.

"OI! Vivi! You can get up now," Zoro said and all too suddenly Vivi realized she was in her own compromising situation.

Zoro was on top of Chopper's horns, pinning poor Chopper to the ground. Vivi had, however, landed on top of Zoro and Kohza both. Her chest in Zoro's face and Kohza's head was between her calves (that's the lower half of the leg for those of you who don't know! ). If Vivi was red before it held nothing to how she felt now.

Vivi quickly untangled herself from Kohza, who was also looking rather red, and quickly crawled off of Zoro. Apologizing to them both as she did.

Zoro was a slight red himself, but his heart was pounding in his ears and he couldn't hear any of Vivi's apologies. He was too embarrassed to even face her. So he stood in a hurry trying to clear his head. A long silence followed and the air tensed, until Chopper stood up dizzily due to the impact from Zoro falling on his head. Vivi then caught him as he fell from his dizziness.

"Toni-kun are you ok?" Vivi asked worried.

Chopper then muttered something that sounded like an "I'm fine" then proceeded to lose his footing straight into Vivi's arms.

The silence continued for a few seconds after word until Usoppu broke it.

"Where's Luffy?" he questioned.

Everyone looked around, surprised at first but when they remembered the person in discussion they all realized that they weren't that surprised he was missing at all.

"Damn Captain!" Zoro muttered out loud to himself, although he found that for once he was quite glad that Luffy had done something stupid because it broke up the awkward situation they were in.

Everyone (except Kohza) then sighed and nodded in agreement with Zoro.

"Does this Captain do this often?" Kohza asked Vivi.

Vivi nodded vigorously in return.

A click was heard in the corner and everyone turned to see a now awakened Sanji lighting a tell-tale cigarette, he inhaled the ash in it deeply for a second then blew out the smoke, "Well, shall we go and find our Captain then?" he asked.

Everyone nodded and prepared themselves to leave, that is of course everyone except Kohza.

"But we don't even know where we are!" Kohza protested, "Let alone if there are anymore traps like the last one waiting for us?"

"That doesn't matter," Sanji said.

"We're pirates and we don't go anywhere without our Captain," Nami finished, "We'll figure out how to get out of her after we find Luffy," she said as a small flash of berri signs passed through her eyes, "And the treasure of course,"

"YOU'RE the only one that cares about THAT!" Zoro repeated himself, "In any case there are four open doors at the bottom of this ship. We should probably split up and go search them all, since we don't know what door Luffy went through,"

Usoppu then came up with a brilliant plan.

"I've got a brilliant plan!" Usoppu exclaimed and ran over, holding up something in his hand.

Everyone gathered around him to see better, and Zoro noticed that Vivi once again placed herself as close to Kohza and as far away from Robin as she could.

"Everyone will pull a piece of paper from my hand. At the end of each paper is a color. There will be two papers of each color and the person who comes up with the same color as you will be your partner and we'll all go into the doors that match our colors with our partners to go find Luffy!" Usoppu said indicating the doors all had different color door frames, "I'll wait here for you guys to get back," he finished his legs shaking.

"YOU'RE GOING TOO!" everyone yelled at him.

Kohza picked first, black.

Then Sanji, yellow.

Nami also got yellow.

"NAMI-SWAN! IT'S FATE ISN'T IT!" Sanji exclaimed happily while dancing with a return of his famous red hearts flying around him.

Nami sweatdropped and walked with him to their assigned door.

Chopper was next, he got blue.

Then Zoro got green.

Robin also got blue.

"Oh! That means you're on my team!" Chopper said happily to Robin.

"Glad to have you," Robin smiled and they both went through their door.

Zoro heard Vivi sigh with what sounded like relief when Robin left the room and then went to go pick her color.

There were just two colors left, which meant she was either going to be Kohza's partner or Zoro's, leaving Usoppu with the aftermath. Vivi held her hand over the two remaining slips for just a moment, then pulled her paper...

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Luffy (who had gone through the blue door) was now staring at the largest swimming pool he had seen in his life. In fact he was pretty sure the whole room was a swimming pool. The hallway floor dropped straight down at a 90-degree angle and from where he was standing he couldn't even see the other side of the room. All he could see was water stretching around him from all sides, almost as if this old pirate man had put the very ocean inside his ship with some sort of magic. Luffy was fascinated by this and wished that he could get a closer look but knew that he couldn't.

"There you are Sencho," Robin said as she and Chopper approached him from behind.

"Luffy! You really should think things out before just running on ahead," Chopper lectured at him.

Luffy however paid no mind to Chopper's advice and grabbed the doctor instead.

"Look Chopper you can't even see the other side," Luffy smirked holding Chopper over the end of the hall so Chopper might be able to see clearly.

Chopper was impressed by more so puzzled, "Why do you think the old pirate Captain would put water in his boat?" he asked out loud.

"I suppose this would be one of the tests in order to get to the treasure," Robin replied smiling gently at Chopper.

"Huh? How can water be a test?" Luffy asked Robin.

"I think we're supposed to find our way to the other side Sencho," she answered.

"Oh!" Luffy said then looked around, "I've got an idea then!" he exclaimed happily.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

In the yellow room Sanji and Nami weren't fairing much better in figuring their situation out. The entire room was painted a bright yellow and it was entirely filled with levers. There were thousands of levers everywhere. Levers as far as the eye could see, levers on the ceiling, on the floor, and on all the walls as well, but no way out of the room. The door had closed behind them both as soon as they had entered it and Sanji couldn't even find the crack of where it HAD been due to all the bright paint messing with his eyes. Nami couldn't find it either.

"Can't you just kick the wall down?" Nami asked impatiently.

Sanji squeezed past a few levers in order to reach the wall and knocked on it faintly, then he put his ear up to it and shook his head in response.

"There's water on the other side of this wall," Sanji said.

"Well, how about the others," Nami asked.

Sanji went to each of the walls one by one and got the same results, even on the floor he heard the sound of water.

"THIS IS RIDICULOUS!" Nami shouted, "THERE CAN'T BE WATER _ALL_ AROUND US!"

"Yes, well, this is probably one of those tests Robin-chan was reading to us about," Sanji said, "The idea is to trick us so that way we don't know which one IS real and end up breaking the wrong door or something like that. I suggest that we go up!" he pointed up to the ceiling, "I can always kick through the roof."

"How are we supposed to get up there?" Nami asked.

"Climb the levers," Sanji smiled.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Zoro had never seen so much green in his life! And that was saying a lot because it was a color he often wore, but THIS was just ridiculous.

"What's with all the plants! This is worse then the forest in Skypiea," Zoro muttered out loud to himself as he climbed over a fallen log, "And all the green paint on the walls in the background is just making it worse, my eyes are going to start spinning soon."

His partner laughed behind him.

"Your green hair doesn't help much either. Neither do your clothes…. Did you HAVE to wear all green today?"

Since when did Vivi like to tease people? Whatever the case he was glad to see her in a better mood. Not like he'd let her know that though.

"Che," Zoro spat out.

Vivi laughed again, "I'm just kidding. I like your hair actually," she said.

Zoro froze where he stood, and his heart began to beat in his ears again, a hundred times faster than the normal pace.

"It's soft and it reminds me of Carue's down feathers. Besides, green is my favorite color," Vivi continued.

Carue's feathers…..

"Mr. Bushido? Are you alright?" Vivi asked after she noticed Zoro hadn't moved for a few moments, when she caught up with him she put a hand on his arm and he nearly jumped out of his skin.

"I - I got stuck for a second!" Zoro snapped, "I'm fine, lets go!" and he began walking ahead at a very quick pace.

"Mr. Bushido wait," Vivi said and rushed to try and keep up.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Which means the one stuck with Usoppu…..

Kohza sighed. This….shell…or dial….or WHATEVER this pirate was calling it was really not helping them in the darkness.

"Don't you have any more of these we could use pirate?" Kohza asked the long-nosed man huddling behind him.

"I can't help it!" Usoppu yelled nervously in return, "I gave one to all the others in case they needed one and so I only have our two left!"

Kohza sighed again, the room they had to go into was PITCH black, swimming in tar would have been clearer. If not for these weird dial things that the pirate had had with him Kohza wouldn't have been able to see the nose on his face. Plus what was worse is that Vivi was now alone with that brute pirate. Who knew what could happen to her while he was stuck here in the dark.

What's more he was pretty sure they had stumbled into some sort of odd maze.

Kohza moved his hand along the wall and stepped forward a few feet, only to have the long-nosed pirate panic at the loss of human contact and run up and cling to him the way a frightened child might.

Kohza found he was sighing a lot these past couple of days.

"Could you maybe back off a little?" Kohza asked, "I can't concentrate with you shaking all over me,"

Usoppu reluctantly moved back about an inch, and waited.

"A little more maybe? I can still feel you breathing down my neck, and I can't find our way out of this maze in the dark AND with you distracting my train of thought!"

Usoppu took a step back and almost disappeared due to the darkness. Kohza could only hope it wasn't this dark where Vivi was stuck with that marimo man.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Chopper was starting to have horrid flashbacks from Alabasta now that he realized what position he was in. Luffy had wrapped himself around some sort of pole that was just at the end of the hallway and was preparing himself to shot across the water, with Robin and Chopper in tow. The idea was that if Luffy didn't make it all the way across then Robin could use her power to catch them from the ceiling and hold them up. Of course Luffy had no idea about what to do after that happened, but this wouldn't have been the first stupid thing Chopper had done for Luffy and it probably wouldn't be the last. Robin however didn't seem to be worried at all. She grabbed hold of the captain and Chopper and even grew a few extra arms to hold them tighter.

"Ready everyone!" Luffy asked.

Robin responded with a yes and Chopper responded by covering his eyes and squealing loudly, and with that Luffy shot off. They flew for about a minute before they started to fall, and they got pretty far too, but Luffy STILL didn't see the end of the room. Which confused him because his eyesight was pretty good.

When they started to fall Robin was true to her word and grew some hands off the ceiling to catch them with, or at least she tried.

As they started to fall faster and faster towards the water Chopper began to panic, "ROBIN!" Chopper squealed, "WHY HAVEN'T YOU CAUGHT US YET!" he panicked.

"The ceiling is made out of marine-stone!" Robin said almost calmly.

"NANI!" Chopper and Luffy both screamed at the same time.

"WE'RE GONNA DIE!" Chopper whined, and then they hit the water.

And then bounced back up.

"Huh?" Luffy wondered aloud.

They all came back down but didn't bounce back this time but just stayed on the surface of the water.

"What happened?" Chopper asked from his huddled position, "I'm afraid to uncover my eyes. Are we dead yet?"

Luffy stretched and grabbed Chopper, "It wasn't water," Luffy said.

Chopper opened his eyes slowly and meagerly looked around.

It was true! They were all sitting on top of what they had thought to be water but turned out to be something else entirely.

"What is it?" Chopper asked wriggling free from Luffy and walking on the strange substance himself.

"I dunno," Luffy said then looked questioningly at Robin who seemed to be feeling around it herself.

"I think it's like some sort of gelatin," she answered sounding just as confused herself.

"Isn't that edible?" Luffy asked.

"Well, yes, but..."

Robin never got to finish, Luffy ripped out a pick chunk of the gelatin like substance and took a large bite.

"LUFFY?" Chopper shouted, surprised and yet not really surprised at what Luffy was doing.

But then Luffy spit it out, "YUCK! This is gross!" Luffy shouted and began to try and wipe the taste off his tongue.

Robin laughed.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Sanji and Nami had both gotten about halfway up the wall by way of lever with no problems until, Sanji leaned on one the wrong way.

Click!

The lever moved and Sanji and Nami froze, preparing themselves for the worst, but nothing happened.

"Hmm, I guess these levers don't do anything after all," Sanji muttered to himself and began to climb again, helping Nami up along the way when she needed it.

And then it happened again, Nami stepped onto a lever and this time something did happen. The wall sprayed them lightly with a thin layer of some sticky substance.

"What the heck was THAT!" Nami yelled.

Sanji reached out and slowly ran his finger down her face.

Nami couldn't believe it. What was he doing? Why didn't she seem to mind? Why was she turning red? So Nami did the next best thing to hide her embarrassment, she got angry and swatted Sanji's hand away. Then turned her head. She turned back around just in time to see Sanji place the very same finger that had been on her face only seconds ago into his mouth. Now Nami was turning scarlet.

"CHOTTO! Sanji-kun! What do you think you are--"

"It's honey," Sanji said.

"Honey?"

Sanji nodded.

"But why spray us with honey?"

Sanji shrugged and they both fell silent for a moment. Which is why they heard it. There was a faint buzzing from what seemed to be far away, but it was getting closer.

"Sanji-kun, do you hear..." Nami trailed off when she noticed Sanji was looking at something behind her and had never looked so horrified in his life.

Nami, dreading, turned around herself to see what it was he was looking at just in time to see the large swarm of bugs engulf them both.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Zoro stopped, "Did you hear something?" he asked Vivi.

Vivi stopped as well and listened.

"I didn't hear anything Mr. Bushido," Vivi said after listening for a moment.

Zoro shrugged and began moving again, Vivi followed along just behind him.

Zoro was quite surprised at the fact that she was able to keep up with his pace in this kind of terrain, he and Robin had had to help Nami across EVERYTHING in Skypiea, but Vivi was really holding her own out here. Of course Vivi had always impressed him. From the time that she told him, Nami and Luffy her story in Whiskey Peak, her going out of her way for her country and putting her life on the line to do it. To other things like in Little Garden when they had been caught on Mr. 3's giant candle of death and said that she would fight with him.

Vivi had never been afraid to risk her life and help in certain danger despite her weakness. She had even stood up to those huge banana crocodiles to try and help him and Luffy and some of the others out of that cage on Rainbase...

"Mr. Bushido," Vivi said quietly, bringing him out of his thoughts, "Can we really trust Miss AllSunday?"

Zoro frowned he knew this was going to come sooner or later but did she really have to ask him?

"Well," Zoro began, "The Captain trusts her and so do the rest of the crew...but I still don't really trust her completely. She may be planning something she might not, but either way I'm just going to leave her be until I find out which it is. And that's good enough for me. We can all draw our own conclusions about her. But if your worried about her doing something to you or your friend sideburns back there, don't! She wouldn't be stupid enough to pull something like that in front of the rest of us...and I won't allow something like that to happen. Ok?"

Zoro turned to see what she thought of his answer to find that she wasn't there! She had disappeared completely!

"What the!" Zoro yelled and ran back a few feet, searching for her but didn't see a trace of her, "OI! VIVI WHERE DID YOU GO!" he yelled after not being able to find her and hoping for an answer.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Kohza could have sworn that the weird maze they were in was getting more crowed, the walls were narrowing down. Of course it was hard to tell when the long-nosed pirate wouldn't give him a few inches of space. Then he heard a low rumbling, very faint and only for a second but he was sure of what he had heard and he stopped. Usoppu ran into him again.

"What is it?" Usoppu asked at the worried look on Kohza's face.

"I think the walls are closing in on us, " Kohza said.

"WHAT?" Usoppu yelled.

"This is probably one of those tests. We probably have to find our way out before the walls close up and crush us," Kohza said.

"HOW CAN YOU BE SO CALM?" Usoppu demanded.

"Panicking won't help us to figure out how to get out of this!" Kohza replied.

"Can you cut through the walls with that sword of yours maybe?" Usoppu asked.

Kohza knocked on the wall, "They're made out of metal. Sorry but I can't cut through metal," he said, "Had it been wood then sure, but not metal,"

"I bet Zoro could cut through it," Usoppu muttered to himself.

"I'm sorry. What was that?"

"NOTHING!" Usoppu shouted and laughed nervously.

Kohza glared at him for a second, "Do YOU have anything in that bag of yours that can knock the walls away?" Kohza asked, "Any of these shell things that could do that?"

Usoppu wrapped his hand around the impact dial in his bag, "No," Usoppu said nervously as if Kohza could see straight through him and know what the impact dial could do.

"Well then lets hurry up and try to get out of here," Kohza said and began moving forward again.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Sanji and Nami ran down all the levers as fast as they could go, sadly they tripped another lever in the process but didn't stick around to find out what it did or didn't do! Luckily for them it opened the door out of this mess.

The door opened quite quickly but began to close as soon as it had opened, fortunately the door didn't close as fast as it had opened. Sanji and Nami rushed through the door just as it closed behind them separating them from the horrid swarm of bugs. And then they both collapsed, exhausted. That was until Nami noticed the bug on Sanji's shoulder.

"Sanji...kun," Nami whispered then pointed at his shoulder, "there's a bug..."

Sanji turned his head slowly in order to try and see his shoulder and nearly died when he realized what was there.

Nami slowly got out her climatact and aimed for the bug with her lightening piece ready and then zapped the bug off of Sanji's shoulder. Sanji, who had closed his eyes during this process) opened them slowly again.

"Is it gone?"

"Yep," Nami said.

"NAMI-SWAN ARIGATOU!" Sanji yelled and ran to hug her, his infamous red hearts returning once again.

And Nami knocked him out.

"In any case what is this room," Nami questioned, trying to hide her nervousness again.

Sanji stood and looked around the room, this room was painted entirely white but had about three doors and a hole near the ceiling that looked like a large chute for laundry or garbage or something.

"Do you think one of these doors is the way out?" Nami asked.

"They can't be opened," Sanji pointed out, and that's when Nami realized none of the doors had handles.

"Can't you kick these out then?" Nami shouted.

"They all have the same sound coming from them as the other walls did, and the door that we DO know doesn't have water behind it has all those...bugs," Sanji shuddered.

"Then what do we do now?" Nami asked.

Sanji took out a new cigarette (that didn't taste like honey now) and lit it, "Wait and see," he said.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Luffy, Chooper, and Robin learned a very important lesson that day. Walking on a jello-like substance was not easy work. And neither was figuring out the situation that would get them out of there. That was until Robin read what the test was on the wall.

"It says 'Find the way out'" Robin read.

"And..."

"That's it." Robin replied.

"HOW ARE WE SUPPOUSED TO FIGURE THAT OUT!" Chopper squealed, "We're gonna be stuck here forever aren't we?"

"I've got it!" Luffy exclaimed.

"Huh?"

"Got what?" Chopper asked.

"The way out of here, I've got it," Luffy said.

"What is it?" Robin asked curious herself.

"The door out is underneath the jello!"

"Huh?"

"We can't find the walls so the door has to be under the jello!" Luffy said as though it made perfect sense.

"And what makes you think that?" Chopper asked.

Luffy smiled, "Intuition," he said.

"We're gonna die!" Chopper replied.

Robin laughed, "Believe in the Captain," she said and grabbed onto Chopper as Luffy prepared and attack to break apart the jello.

"Hold on!" Luffy said, "Gum Gum PISTOL!"

And the jello split in half to revile a small brown door amidst all the blue paint and jello on a door in the corner. The group went down and opened it, this door dropped down into another room that had one single door on a wall. Luffy, Chopper, and Robin went through this door which took them to another room that was painted entirely white and had Sanji and Nami waiting inside.

"Yo!" Luffy said as he came in last behind Robin and Chopper.

"DON'T CLOSE THAT--" the door shut behind Luffy, "door," Sanji and Nami said at the same time.

"Huh?" Luffy said, "You don't wanna go out that way anyhow, it's weird!"

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Kohza was really starting to get nervous now. It seemed no matter how much he tried he couldn't figure out the way out! And things were really starting to become a tight pinch, literally! The walls had closed up so close around them that they were exactly even with Kohza's shoulders and that if Kohza wanted to move his arms any it would have to be straight out! The pirate he had come with still had a little elbowroom but Kohza still felt this was getting to be hopeless! Pretty soon he would have to start walking sideways. And of course the fact that he couldn't see didn't help much!

Kohza decided it would be better to turn sideways now rather than later. He really couldn't afford to die like this! What about Vivi? Who was going to make sure she was safe? He had never even told her –

A light dial whizzing past his head broke him from his thoughts.

"What the hell was that pirate?" Kohza began but instantly changed his mind when he saw a small brown door illuminated by the light of the shell, "How did you?"

Usoppu lifted up one of his goggles, "I thought I saw a slight glisten of a gold doorknob," he said, "So I used my slingshot to see if I was right!" he smirked.

Kohza was impressed, he never would have been able to see that!

"You must be a sniper!" Kohza said and Usoppu was shocked, "Sniper always have good eyesight… All of mine did anyway! It explains the goggles too. Eric always wore them as well!"

Usoppu had almost forgotten he was in the presence of the rebel leader from Alabasta.

"In any case, good work! Now let's get outta here before it gets any more crowded!

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Zoro was beginning to panic! He couldn't find Vivi anywhere and he was starting to get worried, not to mention lost! And the fact that she wasn't answering his calls wasn't helping his worries much either. He knew that he had always been one of the ones to preach and tell her to believe in her nakama because they wouldn't die so easy but Vivi was different and he couldn't help but worry. Why she was different he wasn't exactly sure yet! But he knew that if he didn't find her soon he didn't know if they would make it out of here at all!

Then he heard it. The slight rustle of bushes and cracking of twigs and sticks he had heard before. Only this time it was much closer. He slowly reached for Wado prepared to fight whatever it was that was coming for him. He spun around sword ready to with sticks and leaves and stuff in her hair. Zoro lowered his sword and watched as she picked a few leaves out of her hair.

"What happened to you?" Zoro asked.

"I fell down a hole," Vivi said, "I had to use my peacock slashers in order to catch myself! But I think I found the way out!"

Zoro put his sword away and Vivi led him to a door on a wall not far from where they were. Zoro walked over slowly and tried the handle. It wouldn't turn!

"The knob doesn't turn," Zoro said offhandedly to Vivi.

"Really? I wonder if there's another way out of here then?" She said.

"I could just break it," Zoro offered.

Vivi shrugged and Zoro took that as the closest he was going to get to a yes, so Zoro kicked in the door and he and Vivi took a step in to the room together, only to have the floor drop out from under them, again!

But Vivi thought fast this time and extended her peacock slashers so catch a tree just as the fell the grabbed Zoro's hand to keep them from falling.

Zoro was quite shocked that he had stopped falling but then noticed what Vivi had done.

"Now what?" Vivi asked, not sure what to do now.

Zoro looked around for something to grab a hold of but found nothing. A few seconds of silence followed but then Vivi broke it.

"Mr. Bushido….."

"What?"

"You're heavy….." Vivi whined.

Zoro frowned up at her then something hit his face, something warm, and wet. He reached up a hand and wiped it off to see what it was and was shocked at what he saw.

"Vivi! Are you bleeding!" Zoro shouted at the princess.

Vivi didn't answer so Zoro looked up to see where she was bleeding from and then noticed what had happened.

The pinky wrap on Vivi's slashers wasn't strong enough to hold them so Vivi had wrapped her hand around the slashers at the last second in order to get a better grip, and they were cutting into hand because of all the extra weight.

A few more drops landed on Zoro and then he couldn't take it anymore.

"Vivi! Drop me!" Zoro demanded.

"WHAT!"

"You'll cut through your whole hand otherwise!"

"SO! You'd cut off your feet for me!"

"That's different!"

"HOW IS IT DIFFERENT!"

"I'm gonna let go of you know so you let go of me!"

"NO!"

Zoro let go of her hand but Vivi still struggled to hang on, causing the slashers to cut into her hands deeper and more blood to flow.

"VIVI! LET GO OF ME!"

"We don't know what's down there! What if you get hurt!"

"I WON'T! Trust me! Let go!"

But Vivi didn't want to let go, instead he slipped.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Kohza and Usoppu rushed through their door and into the white room just as the walls closed shut behind them, both of the gasping for breath.

Sanji looked at the walls behind them, "Well, I guess that's not the way out," Sanji said and threw his cigarette on the floor, "I guess the ceiling is th—"

Zoro fell through the chute in the ceiling.

Kohza looked up, "Weren't you with Vivi?" he asked breathless.

Zoro rolled over and stood, ready to find a way back up to Vivi.

"Zoro….that blood—!" Chopper yelled.

Sanji looked up the hole, "If that's not it—" he began but didn't get to finish, because Vivi fell in face first into the room. Face to face, and lip to lip for that matter, onto Sanji, knocking him onto the floor. And this was how Vivi and Sanji both got their first, lip to lip kiss.

Authors Note pt.2: Thanks so much for reading. Review and let me know what you think! Thanks again. Next update will be on Dec. 2 or maybe 3! I have a lot of midterms this week soooo…. Otanoshimini!


	6. Chapter 06 Midnight Parade

An Old Cliche:

the desert's rose

Chapter 06 - Midnight Parade

-1st Performance: Yakimochi-

By: L.R. Pelgina

beta read by: Starfirehime

_We pretend not to realize how we really feel_

_And suddenly, we fall in love_

_-- Let Me Be With You; Chobits_

Authors Note: HELLO AGAIN! And again sorry for this being a bit late, but I DID warn you quys last week! This chapter is a little short as well, but that'll happen every once-in-awhile. Thank you everyone for reviewing, I'd tell you all that individually but apparently we're not allowed reviewer responses in our stories any more! However I would like to thank the new reveiwers for doing just that and to say: I got a lot more angry reveiws from ZoroxVivi fans than I did SanjixNami fans like I figured...weird. But I DID warn you guys about that too, but it's all to move Nami along... That's IT! I sware! The next couple of chapters of this are going to be pretty SanjixNami heavy, but hang in there other couple fans! I have stuff cooking up for the others too! Thank you all so much and review please!

Disclaimer: Besides the villians I create I don't own any of this! I don't want Oda-sensei to get me for copyrights.

"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING TO THE PRINCESS?" Kohza yelled suddenly finding his breath.

Vivi, all-of-a-sudden realized just what had happened, and sat up in a hurry. She covered her mouth, shocked at what she had just done, and with Sanji none-the-less! Sanji however didn't seem as upset, his lips were still puckered and there were hearts in his eyes and hearts lying all around him. That was until Kohza came up and shook it all out of him.

"I ASKED YOU WHAT THE HECK YOU THOUGHT YOU WERE DOING!" He said shaking a woozy Sanji.

Everyone was silent, until Luffy started whistling, mocking what had just happened. But even Luffy stopped whistling when everyone turned to look at him and Kohza shot him an angry glare.

"Sanji-san," Vivi began and even the woozy Sanji was able to look at her, "I never thought that my first kiss would taste like nicotine..." she trailed off.

This really ticked Kohza off and he was about to yell again when Chopper interrupted the tension in the air.

"VIVI! YOUR HAND?" Chopper yelled and immediately ran to her aid.

Kohza let go of Sanji, more concerned over Vivi's health then the man who had violated her mouth, and even Usoppu and Luffy came over to see what was wrong. A few people however where still to shocked to realize that Chopper was now tending Vivi's wound, i.e. Zoro and Nami.

Zoro could have sworn he had never been so pissed as this moment in his entire life. He had literally wanted to go over there and cut Sanji to tiny bits. Which worried him. Sure he had thought of cutting Sanji up before, but never had he actually reached for his sword with the actual intention to do so. What in the hell was going on with him?

Nami wasn't feeling much better. She felt as though she had been hit in the chest with a blunt object. The muscles around her heart tightened painfully as unintentional jealousy seared through her veins. But one question plagued her mind as she thought all this. Why did she even care? It wasn't like she liked Sanji or anything, right? ...Right?

"This going to need stitches," Chopper scolded Vivi.

"What a minute! Your telling me the talking tanuki is a doctor?" Kohza said.

"I'M A REINDEER!" Chopper shouted, insulted at Kohza's assumption of the wrong animal.

"Toni-kun is a wonderful doctor from the Drum Kingdom," Vivi explained, "He's a reindeer that ate the Hito-hito fruit."

"I thought it was weird that there was a talking animal on the boat. I thought I had gotten a bit too much sun." Kohza sniggered.

Vivi giggled, "That's an odd thing to say being from Alabasta," she said as Chopper finished up with her hand.

"I know. I thought the same thing," Kohza laughed lightly.

CLICK!

Suddenly the floor started rising up on it's own and Usoppu moved his finger away from what had once been an unpressed button, "Oops," he muttered.

"USOPPU!" Everyone yelled at him (except for Luffy of course who was laughing in excitement).

Zoro and Nami were both happy for the interruption as well. Nami because the sudden shock of movement had moved Sanji away from Vivi and closer to her (not that she was jealous of course), and Zoro because it broke the little "mood" that Kohza and Vivi had started sharing. That was until Kohza put his arms around her to brace Vivi on the moving floor.

Zoro let out a low growl deep in his throat and then the floor stopped.

"What now?" Usoppu asked shaking.

"I'll bet we have to pick the right door out," Robin said.

"Not more tricks!" Usoppu whined.

"Oh, come on. You got us out of the last one just fine. Besides this could be the last trick." Kohza encouraged.

"Yeah, or this could just be one huge labyrinth that we'll never find our way out of. We should be careful," Sanji said, tearing down Usoppu's sudden security.

"It would seem that way," Vivi added as Kohza helped her up.

"Lets go through this door then!" Luffy shouted heading for the door that looked best to him.

"WAIT!" Everyone shouted but to no avail. Their cries fell on deaf ears as Luffy slowly opened the door to reveal...

The first room that they had all started in.

"What the hell..." Kohza said astonished.

Luffy and Robin looked over the edge of the door, the floor was still gone and the compartment where the treasure should have been was empty. Except for...

"I see something over there, it looks like a piece of paper," Robin said.

"I'll get it!" Luffy offered and began one of his stretching maneuvers when Robin stopped him.

"Captain, that compartment is made out of marinestone." Robin pointed out.

"If you want..." Everyone turned to look at Vivi as she spoke, "I can go and get it if you like," Vivi said quietly walking up behind Luffy and Robin alone.

True. She was still nervous around Miss AllSunday, but she had heard what Zoro had said about her and she felt better knowing she wasn't the only one who had to try and learn to trust her.

Luffy (despite appearance can read people rather well I think) understood this as a sign that she was going to give Robin a chance and smiled at her broadly, "All right Vivi! IKE!" he shouted excited now.

Vivi smiled in return, nodded and got out her peacock slashers when Zoro grabbed her hand to stop her. Everyone fell silent again and Zoro could feel the air tense around him. He could even see Kohza reach for his sword. Ignoring this he took Vivi's slashers from her and ripped off thee holder for her pinky in one fluid motion.

Luffy watched in silence knowing that if he had done this Zoro would have done the same. The two had an odd sort of trusting of each other that way, one always knew the other was up to something. Which is why Luffy stopped anyone that tried to make a move to stop Zoro.

Vivi however didn't understand him that well yet, "Mr. Bushido?" Vivi shouted, shocked.

Zoro ripped off a piece of leather from the strap that held his swords, he had more on the boat so he could replace it, but carrying his swords wouldn't cause him to nearly lose half a hand.

"Relax," Zoro said and began attaching the piece of leather to where the pinky handle had once been on Vivi's peacock slashers, "I'm giving you a new handle to grip onto in order to swing yourself across, so you don't end up with this again," he grabbed Vivi's bandaged and stitched up hand to prove his point.

Vivi laughed meagerly at herself, was she really that easy to read?

Zoro returned Vivi's peacock slasher to her and she stood at the door's edge and prepared herself to swing across. She found a good pipe-like pole and the ceiling and extended her new-and-improved slashers around it, then swung across the gap with ease. When she got to the paper she picked it up carefully in case it was rigged as well, when she felt it wasn't then she swung back and cautiously handed it to Robin, who laughed right after reading it.

"What's it say?" Luffy asked.

"It says 'The greatest treasure in the world, is your nakama'," Robin read.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Brutus Horatius smirked at the hunchman that had just delievered the news, "I thought that man was a pirate," he said, "After he took off that bandana in front of me I though he looked familiar."

"Shall we pursue them your highness?" the hunchman asked.

"No, I know from the look on that pirate that they'll come for me, but we will send out some surprises for them along the way. Send in Wolf." he said.

The henchman bowed then did as he was told.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

On the boat Nami was in one of her "untouchable" moods. The crap that had happened with Sanji and Vivi's ki--. Well, never mind about that! There was no treasure on that GOD DAMNED boat to begin with so all had been for naught! And of course it didn't seem to bother anybody else! In fact Luffy had found the little note to be quite amusing. She had been so mad she even sat outside the little ring of people that were deciding what to with Vivi's current problem with that prince bastard. Of course she had said she wanted to keep Robin company (who had sat out probably due to the fact that it may make Vivi nervous), but that would work out anyway, as Robin probably wouldn't talk to her much anyway, mood or not.

"So, what do _you _want to do Vivi? Do you want us to take you back to Alabasta?" Sanji asked.

Vivi suddenly turned her attention to the ground, "Eh, but for you guys to have come so far on the grand line only to have to turn around again..." she trailed off, "It would probably be best to drop me off at the next island and wait for Iguram and the others to come pick me up from Alabasta," she answered.

"Luffy?" Sanji called, "What do you think?"

"What's all this 'going back' nonesense!" Luffy said, and Zoro smiled knowing Luffy was thinking the same thing as him, "Didn't Vivi come back to be a pirate?"

Or maybe he wasn't!

"DID YOU EVEN LISTEN TO OUR STORY!" Vivi, Zoro, and Kohza shouted.

"Is it really best for her to go BACK to Alabasta right now?" Usoppu interrupted.

"My thoughts exactly," Sanji said.

"But Pell created a distraction for us so we could get her back!" Kohza protested.

"No! He created one so we could get away," Zoro corrected.

"But now they're going to be looking for us out in the open water, everywhere basically EXCEPT Alabasta," Kozha retalated.

"That's alright," Luffy said, "We'll just kick there butts!"

"It's up to Vivi in the end," Sanji reasoned andeveryone turned to look at her.

There was a short silence that seemed to take forever when Zoro couldn't stand it anymore, "Vivi! All I have to do is kick this Brutus Horatius' butt, right?" he said mimiking the thing Luffy had said over and over on the way to fight Crocidile.

Vivi smiled and nodded, "On to Insula!" she said standing up, "And whatever islands we have to cross to get there!"

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

It suddenly became dark when they reached the next islands a few days later. There was an odd group of people having a party of some sort in the dark when they. The island was called Mayonaka and the Mugiwaradan had come just in time for their Midnight Parade that they had every year around this time. And so the Luffy Pirates all joined in on the thing they did second best, PARTY! (The first is fighting for those who are curious).

Authors Note pt.2: Thanks so much for reading. Review and let me know what you think! Thanks again. Sorry it was so short too! Next update will be on will either be on Thurs Dec 8th or Monday Dec 12th as I am moving this weekend, maybe on Saturday in between the two but probably not... Anyway...Otanoshimini!


	7. Chapter 07 Lonely in Gorgeous

An Old Cliche:

the desert's rose

Chapter 07 - Cosmic Night Run

-2nd Performance: Setsunasa-

By: L.R. Pelgina

beta read by: Starfirehime

_Hey, it's disgusting, isn't it?_

_Even if I chase you, you won't come_

_Tears fill up my eyes, and I can't run anymore_

_Maybe it's jealousy... I'm s-a-d...!_

_-- Lonely in Gorgeous; Paradise Kiss_

Authors Note: I know, I know! For those of you entirely caught up with the One Piece manga this island sounds just the opposite of Enies Lobby. You know the "always sunny" island. But I swear it has no significance that way. I had actually planned this island before I caught up to the manga like this. By the way, I don't think I ever made it clear were this was to be placed, this story is to happen AFTER Aokiji (obviously) but BEFORE Water 7. Otherwise I would have to write in the extra nakama wouldn't I? I'll bet it's Paulie...or maybe Franky. Although Paulie would make more sense as he FIXS boats and Franky takes them APART! Then there's the fact that I like Paulie better! OH! And sorry this took so long, moving took more out of me then I thought it would. But now I haven't got my cable hooked up yet so it seems I'm gonna have a lot more time to update! PLUS! I have a few one-shots planned out for all my favorite couples so look forward to that as well!

Disclaimer: Besides the villains I create I don't own any of this! I don't want Oda-sensei to get me for copyrights.

In the midst of the party the Luffy Pirates found themselves in a tavern. Luffy _was_ hungry after all. They all sat at a large table in the corner of the tavern which was so crowded it was hard to keep ones conversations to ones self.

Although Vivi no longer sat as far as she could from Robin, she was still nervous while around her and so placed herself in between Zoro and Kohza. Nami, however, had taken a page from Vivi's book, so-to-speak, and sat as far away from the person with whom she was mad. Sanji. Of course the poor man hadn't the slightest idea that she was angry and was completely oblivious to the fact that she was avoiding him despite his persistent attempts to get her attention.

"How odd. To have the entire island covered in darkness all the time," Vivi said off-handedly to Kohza who nodded in return.

"But I suppose that's coming from two people who see the sun a lot," Kohza reasoned.

"We're not in the dark all the time," a tall man with spiked white hair and a child-like arrogant demeanor said from the table behind them, "there's actually a funny reason why we're in the dark all the time,"

"Mayonaka, the island cast in eternal shadow," Robin said and smirked.

The man nodded, "That's right! There's a mountain that's too far away to see from here but it's SOOO huge that we're cast in it's shadow all day, at least until about noon, but then we only have it tell it sets. Which gives us a total of about 6 hours sunlight a day," he said.

"Doesn't that bug the citizens? To be cast in shadow and darkness for so long? I mean you must have a lot of troubles with growing plants?" Kohza asked.

The man just looked back in surprise.

"He's a BIG activist were we come from," Vivi explained quickly.

"He sounds like he should be the king or something," the man said then laughed.

"You could say THAT again!" Vivi said and she and Kohza joined him in his laughter.

Zoro growled under his breath.

"No, we're all used to the darkness by now. And we don't have any problem with the plant life around here," the man smirked, "Beside the shadow uh...suits our princess quite well..."

Sanji suddenly perked up, "Princess?" he said.

Now it was Nami's turn to growl under her breath.

"My name is Gare, by-the-way. How long you guys here for?" Gare asked.

Everyone turned and looked at Nami who looked at their Rouge Pose, "However long it'll take this to record the island's magnetism... Or until we find an Eternal Pose to Insula," she replied shrugging.

The man was silent for a moment, and then stood suddenly, "You people are heading to Insula?" he demanded.

Zoro, Sanji, and Kohza instantly tensed up, ready for a fight should this man wish to cause one (Luffy would normally have joined them, but somebody had eaten his as well as everyone else's fill and was now unconscious on the floor).

Gare suddenly seemed to realize himself and sat back down in a hurry, "Sorry, someone I know went to Insula," he explained as if it excused his rude behavior.

The boys slowly untensed themselves and continued what they had been doing before.

"You wouldn't happen to know where we could get an Eternal Pose for Insula do you?" Kohza asked suddenly, "I mean if you know someone who went there……"

But Kohza didn't get to finish his sentence because Gare stood again and excused himself in a hurry, leaving some of the Mugiwaradan clueless as to what had just happened. The Mugiwaradan was clueless in any case.

"He knows who has an Eternal Pose or otherwise has one himself," Kohza said out-of-the-blue.

"What makes you say that?" Sanji asked.

"Because he left as soon as Sideburns mentioned it," Zoro added in, "That means he's hiding something. So he either knows about a pose or otherwise works for this prince bastard himself,"

Sanji shot Zoro a glare from across the table, "Well I'm sorry if I didn't make a living hunting down crooks," he spat then suddenly turned sweet, "AH! Vivi-chwan I hope this bad Prince doesn't make me, your Mr. Prince look bad," he mused and took her hands from across the table.

Vivi laughed nervously obviously uncomfortable while Zoro and Kohza both had their hands on their swords within seconds, without even realizing it, but it was Nami who interrupted Sanji's little love-love mood. She stood up suddenly and slammed her hands down on the table so loudly even Luffy woke up and snapped to attention. Her bangs covered her eyes but Vivi could see that she was shaking.

"W—what are we doing waiting around her for then," she choked out through her teeth still keeping her face concealed, "Let's go check him out then,"

And with that Nami ran out of the restaurant.

"Nami-san," Vivi called after her and stood up to go find her but Zoro stopped her by gently grabbing her arm.

"Leave this to 'Mr. Prince' " he said.

God, he hated helping out in things like this but sometimes for the sake peace on the boat (i.e. for the sake of his state of mind) it had to be done, even if he had to help.

Of course Zoro didn't have to say anything for Sanji to go after Nami, he was up before she even hit the door, but he DID have to do something in order to keep Vivi from going to help.

Vivi of course being the worrier that she was took one last long look at the door before listening to Zoro and sat back down.

"How long are you going to hold on to her?" Kohza said bitterly then turned and gave Zoro just as bad a look.

Zoro looked at his hand and realized he hadn't taken it off Vivi's soft skin……uh, he meant,…in any case hadn't taken his hand off her arm yet. Zoro snatched his hand away quickly, embarrassed.

Everyone else (i.e. NOT Zoro, Kohza or Vivi) shifted in their seats, uncomfortable from the thickening tension.

"So, what ARE we going to do about this Gare and an Eternal Pose to Insula?" Usoppu said enthusiastically to try and rid the air from the tensing moment.

"Shouldn't the princess at least have one?" Robin asked without looking up from her book as one of her extra hands turned the page.

"What makes you think –" Kohza began but was interrupted by Vivi.

"She's RIGHT!" Vivi shouted, "Mayonaka is an ally of Alabasta and Insula! We trade often….or we used to before the draught…… So we have eternal poses for Insula and Mayonaka in Alabasta so Mayonaka should have one for Alabasta and Insula! I can't believe I forgot that!" Vivi exclaimed, "But…how did you know –"

"Crocodile made sure I investigated Alabasta _very_ carefully," Robin replied turning another page.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

So much for clearing the air.

Vivi fell silent again, her earlier happy mood now shot down, and Kohza shot Robin a dirty look in response. Of course Robin didn't see it, she still hadn't looked up from her book.

"So – we just go up to this princess and ask her for the eternal pose," Chopper tried his hand at clearing the air.

"I don't think we'll just be able to waltz up there and ask for the pose," Usoppu said, "Not without telling them who Vivi is anyway,"

"AND they ARE allies with Insula as well as Alabasta, so we can't tell them who Vivi is in case they are working with Horatius," Kohza said and Vivi shivered a little at the mention of his name.

"So it's go in and take it by force then? What say you Captain?" Zoro said and looked at Luffy who had remained surprisingly silent this entire time.

Luffy just smiled widely, "Let's go see!" he said and the remaining Luffy Pirates stood, Vivi paid….., and then left to go find an eternal pose to Insula.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Just a few more inches and Sanji would be caught up with Nami….. Sanji reached out to grab her arm as he approached her, to try and stop her to get her attention, but when he touched her to get her attention she whirled around and yanked her arm out of his grasp, and Sanji was shocked to see….that she was crying….

Sanji had never really seen Nami cry before; not without knowing the purpose anyway. The first and only time he had seen Nami in tears was at Arlong Park, when all of the things she had worked so hard for in life where about to be crushed. He really didn't know what to do with a crying Nami to be quite honest. She was always such a strong girl, she mostly tried to keep her emotions inside so as not to hinder anyone else.

"Nami-sa—"

"DON'T TOUCH ME! Just…DON'T touch me." Nami shouted.

Sanji didn't know what to say to that, but tried anyway, "Nami-san, what's wrong?" he asked taking a step towards her.

Nami snorted, "Like you care," she spat, wiping the tears away from her eyes with the back of her hands.

What was going on with Nami-san all of a sudden?

"Na—"

"JUST……go back to Robin-chwan and Vivi-chwan…. You seem to prefer princess anyway. Don't you? Mr. Prince?"

Ok. Now he was REALLY confused.

"Nami-san what is this all about?" Sanji insisted, since when did his fawning over other women bug her so much? He'd always done it… And usually she didn't seem to like the attention he gave her!

Nami ignored his question and had turned around and started walking ahead of him again, but Sanji wasn't going to let her get away that easy.

He caught up with her within two or three steps and grabbed her arm again and whirled her around himself, "NAMI-SAN" he yelled on the brink of frustration.

She yanked her arm out of his hand and the tears started again.

"DON'T TOUCH ME!" She screamed, "LEAVE ME ALONE! I **HATE** YOU!"

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

The remaining Mugiwaradan + Kohza now stood at the bottom of a very large mansion. The island being sort of modern day and kind of small they had all figured they wouldn't run into an actual castle.

They had found out the whereabouts of the castle rather easily. According to the villagers she used to welcome visitors from the village quite regularly but had just suddenly stopped recently. It was quite mysterious they all insisted. Now the only question was whether or not to knock.

"Can I help you?" A tall man with dull spiked back red hair asked. He was quite tall and had a rather gentle demeanor about him, but looked like someone who could talk you out of your most prized possession if he wanted it enough, "My name is Taso and I'm in charge of the princess' affairs. Did you need to see her for something?"

"We came to see about –" Vivi began but Taso interrupted her.

"You people aren't from around here, are you?" He demanded.

Kohza took a step forward to stand in front of Vivi, "We're from Insula," he lied, "We're lost and looking for a way home! We know that Mayonaka is allied with Insula and were wondering if the princess had an eternal pose to there that we might have."

"Your ALL from Insula," Taso asked rising an eyebrow.

"Yes!" Kohza said before anyone else got the chance to say the contrary.

"Well then," Taso said and opened the door they were wondering about knocking on, "Go right in,"

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Sanji was shell-shocked. What had he done to deserve Nami's hate?

But he didn't get the time to think on it. Someone was coming with the intent of attacking them, and fast. And they were heading for Nami first.

"Did you hear me?" Nami shouted, "I said I **HATE** you," Nami insisted and then Sanji pushed her.

She landed on the ground about 6 feet away from him with a thud and was about to beret Sanji for his insensitivity when something that looked like a large tree landed where she had been standing only seconds before and Sanji was standing now. Dust and dirt flew up everywhere, covering her in a shower of sand.

"SANJI-KUN!" She shouted when the tree laughed.

And as the dust settled that's when she realized that the tree had a face! It was Gare!

"You won't mind if I kill him then, if you hate him so much" Gare said to Nami.

_I want to gather up the stardust_

_and throw them at you_

_Why do you care?_

_You can't love anyone but yourself..._

_Maybe it's heartbreak... For real...!_

_-- Lonely in Gorgeous; Paradise Kiss_

Authors Note pt.2: Thanks so much for reading. Review and let me know what you think! Thanks again. The next chapter will be a song-fic and be VERY SanjixNami heavy! Let's just say there's some confessions made... - Anyway if you want to try and find the song I'll give you a running head start! The song is by Crystal Kay and is called Namida ga Afuretemo. Oh, and yes, the princess' right hand man's names ARE Taso & Gare… which together makes Tasogare which means Twilight. And yes, I did it on purpose… For anyone that noticed. The next update will be up Dec.24th (CHOPPERS B-DAY) and this SHOULD be up in time! Or otherwise it'll come sooner! Otanoshimini!


	8. Chapter 08 Namida ga Afuretemo

An Old Cliche:

the desert's rose

Chapter 08 - Namida ga Afuretemo

-3rd Performance: Koishi-

By: L.R. Pelgina

beta read by: Starfirehime

_I knew we'd always be together_

_when we first saw each other in_

_the evening glow, at the corner of the street_

Authors Note pt.1: Hey everyone! Wow! I got a lot of reviewers for the SanjixNami chapter… I wonder where all the ZoroxVivi ones are at? (Besides the ones that are already reviewing of course) Speaking of which you guys need to be patient… The ZoroxVivi SERIOUS stuff won't be coming until later I know it's hard to wait but it will be well worth it I promise! Besides, I'm writing a few one shots for them which should be up within the next week or so. Hopefully that will hold you off a while! AND a Merry Christmas to you as well Vivi I don't actually celebrate Christmas, I celebrate Yule or the Solstice, but ALL my family does so I don't have a problem with it! OH! And my friend Starfirehime has put up a fanfic called Christmas in paradise, anyway she likes all the same couples as me so all the ZoroxVivi fans etc should go check it out! She's a HUGE SanxNami fan though so expect a bit more of that… Anyway HAPPY/MERRY :insert holiday of choice here: to ALL my readers and especially to my reviewers! Happy reading and OH! HAPPY BIRTHDAY CHOPPER!

p.s.: Also I believe I mentioned this before but I'm gonna remind everyone I'm putting LAST NAMES FIRST (if they have one that is). So Brutus Horatius's first name is actually Horatius, and the princees of Mayonaka for example would be Grimm Somber, to her first name is Somber.

Disclaimer: Besides the villains I create I don't own any of this! And the song is by Crystal Kay and is called Namida ga Afuretemo, and therefore belongs to Crystal Kay. I say this now so I don't have to put who it's by etc after each use of the phrases in the song.

The mugiwaradan stepped into a room that was dimly lit, despite the already encroaching darkness outside.

"So you said you were ALL from Insula?" Taso asked again.

"Yes," Kohza lied.

"Oh!" Taso said setting down the things he had been carrying with him, "You people must have been away from home for a long time then,"

"A – ah, we've been gone for awhile," Kohza said nervously.

Zoro, however, was beginning to become suspicious. Why had this man let them in so easily when all the villagers had said that the princess wasn't seeing anybody recently?

"Quite some time," Taso repeated off handedly to himself, "Because if you HAD been to Insula recently you would know that the alliance between Insula and Mayonaka was broken over three months ago!"

Kohza frowned. Damn. They had been caught.

"Also," Taso picked up a piece of paper off of the things he had brought and showed it to the group, it was Zoro's wanted poster, "This man looks to be a pirate! There's one for the one with the straw hat as well," he said and pointed to Luffy who just smiled widely in return. "So why don't you all just tell me why your after our eternal pose to Insula?"

And that was when Zoro heard it, the faint clinking noise of someone wearing a sword on his belt, maybe two. And this guy had to be pretty good to have hid it from him so long. A hand immediately went to his Wadu, ready in case this guy decided to start something.

"Sorry," Luffy exclaimed taking a few steps forward so he was now in front of Kohza and Vivi in the front of the group, "We have our reasons but can't tell you! But if you won't give it to us, then we'll just have to take it!"

Taso only looked back at him, shocked for a moment.

The mugiwaras however took that as an order and each one of them prepared themselves for any sudden movements from Taso.

"Very well," Taso said and pulled out the two swords that rested at his side.

Zoro and Kohza both jumped into action the moment the swords left their holsters and blocked him from making any movement towards the others.

"Go ahead!" They both shouted at once.

Luffy nodded and grabbed Vivi and began running up a flight of stairs, Robin followed close behind. But before Usoppu and Chopper where able to follow Taso managed to throw off Zoro and Kohza and blocked their path.

"The princess can take care of those three herself," Taso said, "But the rest of you aren't passing here," he said and got into a fighting position.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

_Oh baby your lips.._

_The touch of your fingers going through my hair_

_All the things I love_

_make my heart tremble_

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Nami didn't know what to do. Sanji had never stayed down this long, not since Skypiea and he was hit by Enel….. Well, whatever his condition sitting around shocked wasn't going to do anything to help him!

Nami jumped up in a hurry and whipped out her climatact, ready for anything Gare might throw at her and trying to think of a quick plan to get Sanji out from under that….tree…Gare….thing.

"What fruit did you get, the plant one?"

"Isn't that obvious? I ate the mori mori fruit. It's a logia so I can change myself into one as well as control the other plants," Gare boasted.

No wonder he seemed so proud of the fact that Mayonaka never had any problems with their crops despite the short daylight hours.

"I don't care what you can do," Sanji's muffled voice said from underneath Gare, "Get OFF me!"

Nami's heart jumped in her chest. So he was ok? Well, off course he was ok? Sanji wouldn't die from THAT weak of an attack!

A sound like cracking wood was heard and tree-Gare was lying on it's side and Sanji was rolling out from underneath him.

Nami almost went and jumped on him from happiness but then remembered what she had said just before Sanji was hurt. She hadn't really meant it, she was just angry. But now how would Sanji act?

Gare transformed back to human form and was back on his feet in an instant.

"Look pal! You caught me in a really BAD MOOD right now so you picked the wrong time to start a fight with me for no reason!" Sanji yelled at Gare.

That answered Nami's question.

"I am quite far from having no reason for attacking you both," Gare replied, "But now is not the time for talk,"

Sanji took out a cigarette and lit it, "No. It most certainly is not," he said.

Gare then grew out his arms to spiked tree limbs and aimed them straight for Sanji who dodged easily. Sanji then went into a hand stand and cracked Gare's wood like limbs just as easy.

Gare smiled to himself, "I thought so," he said.

Suddenly roots shot out of the ground and wrapped themselves around Sanji's arms. Sanji landed on his back with a thud and Gare wasted no time in wrapping the rest of Sanji's body as well.

"DAMN IT!" Sanji yelled as he struggled against the roots, "Where's that stupid swordsman when you actually need him!"

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

_Tears flow from my eyes_

_so don't let go of my hand_

_I just started to understand_

_the true meaning of the things I love_

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Zoro sneezed and Kohza tossed him a quick look.

"This is no time to me getting sick Marimo," Kohza said.

"SHUT UP SIDEBURNS!"

Zoro and Kohza had just managed to narrowly miss finding out what Taso's fruit was personally, but the had seen it evident in what Taso had done to Usoppu. Well, actually they DIDN'T see what he had done to Usoppu! They couldn't see Usoppu at all in fact.

"What did you do to him?" Chopper yelled from behind Zoro.

Kohza took a step toward Taso who smiled.

"Be careful where you step. Don't want to crush your friend do you?" Taso taunted.

"CRUSH USOPPU?" Chopper squealed.

"What did you do to Usoppu?" Zoro demanded.

"I shrank him," Taso replied, smirking slightly.

"You did WHAT?" Kohza shouted.

"Shrank him," Taso repeated calmly.

"USOPPU!" Chopper cried worried, "Zoro what are we gonna do?"

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

_A few tiny stars sparkle in the night sky_

_Those painful days of the past_

_are now just far-away memories_

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

"Sanji-kun!" Nami shouted and clenched her climatact. How could she help him? She couldn't CUT the roots like Zoro could… Wait! She had an idea that might work.

As Gare advanced on Sanji Nami used her climatact and did the attack were she used one of the ends as a boomerang and knocked Gare back, to get his attention away from Sanji. When it came back she caught it with ease.

"It's time for Ame Tenpo!" She smirked and began to spin the cool air stick and the war air sticks at a high speed to get a rain cloud.

Gare laughed, "A person can't call the rain unless you ate some sort of rain fruit," he said.

But then it began to shower slightly which soon turned into a downpour, but Nami kept spinning the pieces of climtact. She wanted to make sure it was really raining HARD!

Gare held out his hand meagerly to the on pouring rain, purely unimpressed, "What is rain going to do to a plant?" he taunted.

Nami smiled but didn't answer so Gare shrugged, and deciding Sanji was unable to get up, went after her instead.

He tried the same thing as he did on Sanji, turning his arms to sharp pointed tree limbs and extending them rapidly at Nami. The only difference was that Nami wasn't as fast as Sanji so she was knicked a bit when she went to dodge it. Nami ignored the pain of the small wound caused by Gare and somersaulted then attacked him with her previous attack as well. Gare dodged it this time but Nami took the few seconds he was distracted to throw more rain causing weather into the air.

Gare shook his head, "I don't know what it is you're trying so hard to do with this rain, bu—" he began but didn't get to finish because Sanji suddenly came up behind him and kicked him in the back, sending him flying forward and past Nami.

"Loosening the dirt around the roots on the ground, and therefore their grip on Sanji-kun," Nami answered smirking.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

_In the pouring summer rain_

_we had our first argument_

_Time repeated itself, and without_

_your warmth, I was in pain_

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Luffy, Robin and Vivi all found themselves on a very LONG staircase, in fact they had been running up it all this time and had just now reached the door at the end of it.

"Where are we?" Vivi asked between pants for air.

Luffy (who didn't seem tired at all) turned the doorknob without hesitating, but it was to no avail, the door was locked.

Robin (who also didn't seem to be phased a bit after all the exercise) stood forward and crossed her arms and closed her eyes, "Tres Fluer," she said and a second later the door opened itself.

"All right Robin," Luffy smiled and walked in the room, Robin smiled in return and followed close behind and Vivi followed after her after taking a quick look from Luffy to Robin then back again.

Inside there stood only one silhouette of a young girl casting a long shadow. She wore a dark black hooded cloak and had her back was turned to the Luffy pirates present. The Luffy pirates could see her clearly because every light in the room was on.

"Excuse me…" Vivi began to say but the girl cut her off.

"Gare told Taso and I that you were here for my eternal pose to Insula…" the girl said without turning around.

Vivi wracked her brain, trying to remember the name of the princess from Mayonaka, if she could get on familiar terms with her maybe she wouldn't over react. Somber! Grimm Somber! That was it.

"Somber-san…" Vivi began and took a step forward but Luffy stopped her from going past him.

The silhouette slowly turned around to reveal a young girl about 15, with pale white skin, long dark purple hair and piercing light amethyst eyes. She wore a dark black dress underneath her black cloak.

Her eyes widened when she saw them though. She seemed to recognize somebody.

"Gare did not tell me or Taso the princess of Alabasta would be visiting us with the pirates…" She said and with that Luffy stood in front of Vivi.

Somber lowered her eyes to the floor, "I see you are with YOUR friends despite your responsibilities…." She trailed off.

There was a short pause and then Somber lifted her head again, and this time, Luffy, Robin and Vivi could she from her eyes that she was furious.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

_Then when a smile is on my face_

_you hold me tightly in your arms_

_Because you showed me,_

_all the things money can't buy_

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Sanji spit out his cigarette and began to inspect his muddy clothes. God these were going to take forever to clean… But before that he has unfinished business with Nami.

"Nami-san –" Sanji began but this time it was Gare who cut Sanji off mid-sentence.

A large vine burst up from the ground and a bunch of vines grabbed Sanji from behind, Gare stood slowly after having caught Sanji and angrily wiped the blood away from his mouth. He glared at Nami as if to burn a hole straight through her middle.

"That was very clever," Gare admitted, "but this vines roots run deep in the ground. In won't be coming down even for a flood! So if I can't hold this man to the ground, then I'll just keep him in the air!"

Sanji struggled in his holding trying to wriggle loose, but this only angered Gare further.

"ENOUGH!" Gare yelled and made a motion with his fist. The vines around Sanji began to tighten to the point where Nami could hear his bones begin to crack and break. Sanji only grunted with each snap signifying another rib or bone broken. "I CANNOT allow you to take the princess' last prized possession!" Gare said as the vines squeezed Sanji, "No matter WHAT you pirates need to go to Insula for! I will fight to the last for my friend, my Princess. And so will Taso."

Nami was shaking at this point, she didn't know how much more she could take from this. Nami clicked the electricity part of her stick to the top of her climatact. This was the last straw. She had all she could take and it was time to pull out the big guns so to speak.

"For your friend, huh?" Nami said and lifted her head to face Gare, tears ran down her face but everything on her face said she was enraged, "Well, we need to get that eternal pose for a very dear nakama of mine! And we'll ALL fight to the last as well! And if you don't stop hurting the nakama you've got then I'm going to DESTROY YOU MYSELF!" she yelled and got into a fighting position.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

_If right now, one wish could be granted_

_if my wish could reach the sky_

_Then I know, my wish would be_

_for this feeling to never change_

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

"Chopper, use your nose to find Usoppu, but be careful not to get hit by this guy. Then hide yourself behind something. Sideburns, I have an idea, follow my lead," Zoro said.

Although Kohza didn't like the idea of having to follow the Marimo head he knew that this man was far more experienced not only with a sword, but in fighting people with a fruit ability. There were, after all, only TWO in his country, and he knew them both personally as friends.

"Fine," Kohza said and prepared himself to take orders from Zoro.

"Alright Chopper go! Sideburns, you distract him. GO!" Zoro shouted and everyone scrambled to their place.

Kohza ran up and crossed swords with Taso as Chopper scrambled to find a miniaturized Usoppu. Zoro however went in search of the room for a mirror! This guys powers had to be a Paramecia, it had to be a beam like Foxy's. So that meant that the mirror would reflect the beam back and then they could get the upper hand on Taso.

By time Zoro found a mirror Taso had already proved his superiority in a sword fight over Kohza and was getting ready to give Kohza just what he had given Usoppu. And as tempting as it was to let the guy get it, Zoro knew Vivi would never forgive him….. Unless he told her it was out of his hands…… Whatever the case Zoro didn't have enough time to think about it.

Zoro ran up behind him, "Sideburns! DUCK!" he yelled.

Kohza ducked just as Taso shot the beam. Zoro held up the mirror and the beam bounced back and hit Taso right in the chest who immediately shrank.

"I found Usoppu!" Chopper announced holding up a small Usoppu who was making small angry squeaking noises, "How're we gonna help him?" he asked.

"I don't know," Zoro said, but then they all heard a faint laughing, which was getting loader by the second and suddenly Taso reappeared.

"I probably should have said," Taso laughed, "I ate the size size fruit. I can shrink AND enlarge things,"

"Crap," Zoro muttered.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

_Tears flow from my eyes_

_so don't let go of my hand_

_I just started to understand_

_the true meaning of the things I love_

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Sanji drifted in and out of consciousness, his will alone preventing him from passing out in shock and pain from having some of his ribs and other bones broken all at once. But when he came to entirely he did not like what he saw. Gare was about to run Nami through with those branch-arms of his and she wouldn't be able to block it and seemed to be unable to move in order to dodge. Snapping himself awake Sanji mustered up all his strength and wriggled free from the vines that had a tight hold on him just in time to grab Nami and take the blow from her.

"SANJI-KUN!" Nami screamed from behind Gare.

And things seemed to move in slow motion after that. At first Sanji couldn't seem to understand how Nami could be safe in his arms and behind Gare at the same time.

Gare then pulled the sharpen limbs from Sanji making him cough up blood and jerking him just a bit at the same time, "When did she?" Gare called out in shock.

And at that moment the Nami-san in his arms, his beloved Nami-san who he had risked everything to save, slowly disappeared into the air. She became the air itself. While the Nami behind Gare stayed whole.

So the climatact could create mirages. How like Nami-san. The smart Nami was suteki as well. And with that Sanji landed on the ground finally giving into the urge to slip into sweet unconsciousness, were there was no pain and Nami never told him that she hated him.

"SANJI-KUN!" Nami screamed again just as Sanji hit the ground.

Nami no longer wishing to be careful with her lightening bolts sent a huge one Gare's way before he could even finish turning around to face her then quickly ran to Sanji's side.

"Sanji-kun," Nami said picking him up carefully by the shoulders and waited for a response. Something like this couldn't actually KILL Sanji, right? Right?

When Nami didn't receive a response from Sanji she began to shake him slightly frantic to wake him up.

"Sanji-kun!" She repeated a little louder this time.

No response.

She began to shake him harder.

"SANJI-KUN!" She yelled, Wake up! PLEASE!"

Nami was beginning to panic. Sanji had gotten hit in the chest…had Gare hit his heart? No one would survive THAT, not even Sanji!

She began to shake him still harder, "SANJI-KUN!" She was screaming now, tears running down her face.

Still nothing from Sanji.

Nami lay him back down on the grass and began crying on him. Giving up.

"Don't die Sanji," She wailed between sobs, "I didn't even get to apologize for what I said to you."

Nami took in a shuddering breath and lifted herself up far enough to see his face. He was wet and muddy from the still on going ran and her tears. They were both soaked from her rain, and yet the sun was coming up just now like everyday, despite what had happened to Sanji the world seemed to go on.

Nami dropped her head back onto Sanji's chest and pounded her head against it several time as if the action alone would bring Sanji back. If Sanji did not awake for a woman's tears then he was indeed gone.

"I was so stupid," Nami continued between sobs, "I don't hate you Sanji-kun… And – I realize that you act the way you do with Vivi with every other female… But I guess I was…jealous." She confessed, "In fact Sanji-kun… I think I've started to fall in love with you," she said the last part into his chest, as if fearful that the trees would her, "But I guess you'll never know that now," Nami sobbed.

Nami began to cry again when suddenly there was a hand on the back of her head and her tears jerked to a stop. At first Nami was fearful that Gare had awoken but then she noticed the steady rise and fall of Sanji's chest.

He was breathing?

Nami raised her head to look at Sanji's face. Sanji had a grin on his face so wide it could rival Luffy's.

"Sanji….kun," Nami said in disbelief.

Sanji only smiled wider in return and Nami smiled back, then punched him in the face.

_Then when a smile is on my face_

_you hold me tightly in your arms_

_Because you showed me,_

_all the things money can't buy_

Authors Note pt.2: GUH! I HATE writing fights… Oh well, I better get used to it! The next update will be up Dec.30th! Or otherwise it'll come sooner! And keep an eye out for my oneshots, I've got a SanjixNami, 2 ZoroxVivi, a KohzaxVivi, a RobinxLuffy, and an UsoppuxKaya all planned out so…… Otanoshimini!


	9. Chapter 09 UramiBushi

An Old Cliche:

the desert's rose

Chapter 09 - Urami-Bushi

-4th Performance: Wagamama-

By: L.R. Pelgina

beta read by: Starfirehime

_Hatred, frustration, unforgiving_

_erase it from memory, but still cannot forget it_

_It never ends, never,_

_A never-ending women's malice_

_Urami-Bushi; Meiko Kaji _

_(From the Kill Bill 2 Soundtrack)_

Authors Note pt.1: Sorry this is late. A lot of shit has happened to me in the past couple of weeks. At first I was gonna put it up on Dec. 30th, but then I found out Oda-sensei's B-Day is on Jan. 1st so I was gonna but it up then, but then my computer crashed… And then my friend got me all nine seasons of X-Files and I haven't slept in forever…… And then school started again this week and I have like six classes at once and so I ended up with a TON of homework… I even ended up cutting one night in order to work on this a little. So I hope you all appreciate I may have ruined my future career in law for you people… :Sobs: Anyway I'm REALLY sorry but here it is! It really short and VERY cliffhanger(y), but I meant it to be this way and the next chapter is going to end up SUPER long so don't worry! Happy reading people! Bye!

Disclaimer: Besides the villains I create I don't own any of this! Except the story plot to this fanfic…not to One Piece though.

Luffy stood in front of Robin and Vivi, he was not about to let this girl hurt his nakama. He wasn't so sure why, but he had the distinct feeling that this girl was VERY dangerous. This slight movement Luffy made to protect his companions seemed to halt Somber. Her features saddened for just a moment.

"Such wonderful caring friends for a princess to have," She said looking at Vivi then frowned, "YURUSENAI!"

Suddenly Somber's already long shadow elongated rapidly and in a split second she was just in front of Vivi and right behind Luffy.

"Why should YOU be able to be with YOUR friends while I suffer alone!" Somber demanded, her face inches from Vivi's.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Taso put a sword through Zoro's mirror which he had cleverly used as a shield last second, "Very clever though, I must say. How did you ever know that a mirror would reflect my size beam?" he asked.

"Heh! I thought we were in the middle of a fight? There's no time for chit-chat!" Zoro smirked.

This was taking a bit longer than Zoro had hoped and he was beginning to wonder weather or not Luffy or Robin was taking care of Vivi properly.

………………………………………………………………………………………………..

He was really going to have to stop hanging around Vivi so much, her worrying habits were starting to rub off on him.

Zoro was going to have to think fast, now was not the time for worry. He never had to evade size beams, plus two swords AND look out for his fellow companions before. Maybe he could use Kohza as bait again. And now he had to think of a way to get Taso to turn Usoppu back to normal size again.

But he just couldn't concentrate properly, he couldn't stop wondering if Vivi was okay. He knew Luffy would take care of her and maybe even Robin would try… Well, actually he still didn't trust Robin entirely.

GAH! Zoro stop it! You have other stuff to worry about at the moment!

Kohza was back up by now and ready to fight as well he was also wondering if this ships seemingly incapable Captain was going to be able to protect Vivi from this princess who Taso seemed to have every belief could take care of herself! And he REALLY didn't trust that Miss AllSunday person.

Zoro tossed the now broken mirror aside towards Kohza. When Taso had broken the mirror some of the flying glass had cut his arm, Zoro made a note of it, just now noticing, then got out all of his swords.

"Oh! The famous Santouryuu? This should be interesting." Taso smirked.

"Sideburns, get ready," Zoro said and Kohza lifted his sword, "Nope! Take care of Usoppu!" he said and ran up to Taso and they crossed blades.

At first Kohza didn't get it. What could he do for Usoppu? He had already been shrunk and… Then it hit him and he picked up one of the broken shards of mirror and went over to Chopper.

"Give me the sniper," Kohza told the doctor and he obeyed. Kohza then handed the piece of glass to Chopper, "If he tries to hit you with the beam," Kohza explained then took a miniature Usoppu and placed him on the rope that tied his sword to his back, "Hang on Sniper," and then he pulled out his sword and waited for Zoro's signal.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Nami and Sanji (who was receiving aid in walking by Nami) half limped half walked back towards the Going Merry Gou. Both in walked in silence that wasn't anywhere near being a comfortable companionly one. Both were filled with their own thoughts of the things said before.

Sanji, quite honestly, was beginning to wonder if it had really happened at all. For Nami to say such a thing for ANY reason was just not normal of her. Perhaps he had hallucinated it from being so close to passing out again… Of course the punch she had given still felt real enough…

He was starting to think that maybe he should say something but he didn't have the slightest idea what to say. For the first time he was really scared that something he might say to a girl would ruin everything.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Robin took a step back, shocked that the princess of Mayonaka had moved so quickly. It was almost as if she had teleported. The Sand Princess she was sure would have as well, if the Shadow Princess hadn't grabbed her by the front of her clothes. Even Luffy had been shocked and had to about face once he realized what had happened.

"Dos Fleur," Robin said and two hands grew off of Vivi's sides and forced the Mayonaka Princess to release her hold on the Alabastan one. Then Luffy tried to grab Somber to get her out of the way but she disappeared and was suddenly behind Luffy.

"You're in the way," Somber said simply and her shadow elongated again until it went just under Luffy, and he began to sink into it.

"LUFFY!"

"LUFFY-SAN!"

Vivi and Robin both shouted at the same time and made movements to help him.

"Robin! Take care of Vivi, she isn't as strong as…" Luffy began to shout but finished sinking into the shadow before he could finish and before they could help him.

Somber looked up slowly after watching Luffy sink into his shadow.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO HIM!" Robin demanded.

"Don't worry, I'll send you with your friend soon. You're in my way too," Somber said.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Zoro was going to have to play this just right, and he found himself hoping that his luck had kept up with him. Not that this man was a better swordsman than him, but he needed to change Usoppu back before he could do anything about Taso.

He then noticed that Kohza was ready behind him with the extra mirror and the miniature Usoppu on his shoulder. Now he just needed to hold out and wait for one other thing before he could finally put an end to Taso.

Then he heard it! The thing he had been waiting for all this time. There was a quiet clinking of glass breaking as Taso stepped onto the broken mirror Zoro had used as a shield from not only Taso's sword but his Size beam as well. Now was the time to put his plan into action. Zoro just needed to piss off Taso enough to get him to use his size beam again. With Taso's next words he would see his chance.

Zoro and Taso crossed swords once more and Zoro put enough force into the blow to make Taso need to take a step back further onto the broken mirror, but not so forceful as to make Taso think that he still had the upper hand.

"Did you think I'd just let a bunch of pirates come in and take the Princess' most prized possession away from her?" Taso said making the mistake of getting over confidant and trying to bear down on Zoro, "I won't let ANY of you harm what is most precious to her,"

Bingo! Obviously, Taso didn't want them harming what was most precious to HIM either.

Zoro smirked, "But you've already let three of my friends get to her," he said, "and one of them was the Captain. The man worth 100,000,000,000 berris. The man worth MORE than me! He's surely defeated your princess by now,"

Taso frowned and put all his strength into throwing Zoro away from him and Zoro let him, "You bastard!" Taso yelled, "Small beam!"

Zoro ducked and Kohza used the mirror to shoot the beam back at Taso who instantly shrank as a result.

"He's just gonna make himself bigger!" Chopper protested from across the room but Zoro didn't respond.

The miniature Taso on the mirror squeaked something inaudible and Zoro got what he was waiting for. When Taso moved his hand above his head in order to return himself to normal size the Big beam he shot hit the mirror underneath him as well and reflected back up.

"NOW!" Zoro shouted to Kohza who instantly moved into action and tossed the mini Usoppu at the large pillar of beam.

The flying mini Usoppu gave out a squeaky scream the whole way until he hit the large beam and then a newly resized Taso right in the face. Zoro didn't waste a second after that, and neither did Usoppu, who instantly got jumped up and ran behind Kohza after that.

"ONI" Zoro ran up and slashed Taso in one smooth movement, "KIRI!"

Taso went flying after and landed back on the floor with a load crash into a bunch of furniture in the corner.

Zoro then stood and took Wadu out of his mouth and put it away, and after a second of no movement from Taso, Zoro followed suit with Yubashari and Sandai Kitetsu.

Usoppu then choose to gallantly stop quivering from behind Kohza and shout, "That's what you get for messing with Captain Usoppu!" he smiled, "That's just a SMALL taste of what you get for messing with my 8000 men!"

Usoppu began to laugh in a deep voice that was not his own until Zoro turned his aura burning behind him and it seemed as if the world had suddenly gone silent.

"Let's go find Vivi," Zoro said then began to run up the stairs, Kohza didn't hesitate to follow.

Chopper and Usoppu exchanged glances once more like they had in Eden and when Zoro had told off Kohza for arguing with Vivi and the followed close behind the other two.

Authors Note pt.2: The next update will be up Jan.20th! Or otherwise it'll come sooner! And keep an eye out for my oneshots, I've got a SanjixNami, 2 ZoroxVivi, a KohzaxVivi, a RobinxLuffy, and an UsoppuxKaya all planned out so…… Otanoshimini!


	10. Chapter 10 Barefoot and In A Dress Only

An Old Cliche:

the desert's rose

Chapter 10 - Barefoot and In A Dress Only

-Final Performance: Kanashimi-

By: L.R. Pelgina

beta read by: Starfirehime

Authors Note pt.1: I already gave my reasons earlier for this being late! I sorry! Anyway this was suppoused to be up just in time for Vivi's B-Day which was 2/2! So,HAPPY BIRTHDAY VIVI! Even if it is late. And……Alrighty on to business, does anyone watch Teen Titans Go on Cartoon Network? Well in case it hasn't hit you yet I used Raven from Teen Titans Go as my, shall we say Muse, for Somber. I LOVE Raven from Teen Titans and I wanted to make Somber's powers as similar to Raven's as possible, so it took me a while to figure out a good fruit for Somber to have eaten in order to get powers like Raven's! Then it came to me! The SHADOW fruit! Anyway I don't wanna get to into it now, but on my author's page I'm gonna put up a full list of Somber, Taso, and Gare's powers and looks etc, i.e. they're profiles and I'll be doing this for every Island we go to, and every physical enemy they run into. So go there if you are curious! I would also like to say that this chapter was planned the way it was (or the fights were) because Vivi needs to learn to trust Robin I think and I figured this was the best way for them to start gettting along. And also that the SanjixNami fans shouldn't assume this is the end of it for them, I got more stuff planned. :sniker sniker: Anyway, Happy reading! Oh yeah! And you can go ahead and reveiw now, or...reveiw again I guess. Also my Microsoft word is out so until the next update try and put up with the bad spelling.

Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece! I DO however own _A _One Piece. Hahahahaha (you know, like a bathing suit ) I'll bet I'm not the FIRST loser to come up with that one :sweatdrops:

_Bang bang, I shot you down_

_Bang bang, you hit the ground_

_Bang bang, that awful sound_

_Bang bang, I used to shoot you down_

_--Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down); Nancy Sinatra_

Lucky for Vivi Luffy was right. Robin realized almost instantly what Somber was going to do and took and action against it.

"Cincuenta Fleur!" Robin shouted and hands sprang down from the ceiling and lifted Robin and Vivi off of the floor just before they were engulfed by the living shadow.

Somber re-appeared a moment later, rising up from the shadow on the floor. She looked up, unemotional, at the ceiling from which Robin and Vivi now hung. She smirked ever-so-slightly.

"Very clever," Somber raised her voice so they could hear her from the distance, "You seem to have figured out my powers,"

"Something to do with the shadow right?" Robin shouted in return, smiling bitterly, obviously nervous, "Though I don't know your abilities with them yet. Like what you did with our Captain for example,"

"Let me enlighten you a little then," Somber replied, "I ate the Kage kage fruit. I simply put your Captain in my shadow and am holding him there, and the only way to get him out is if I want him out, or if you beat me,"

Just then the floor next to her exploded, Vivi had extended her peacock slashers and tried to hit her. Somber jumped out of the way and was suddenly grabbed by some of Robin's extra hands on the floor.

"Just thought we'd take you up on your offer," Vivi said, smirking nervously, not really sure what she had gotten herself into.

Robin smiled at her and nodded, they were going to have to let their shadowed past no pun intended go for this one and work together.

"That was a nice try," Somber said suddenly flaring up with anger again, "But you'll have to do better!"

Somber's shadow turned into a circle underneath her and Robin's extra arms sank into the floor.

"Tch," Robin mummered under her breath, she really wasn't going to know what to do if she didn't know the girls abilities.

"Do you think it would work better if you grab her directly instead of off the floor Miss AllSunday?" Vivi asked.

Robin shook her head, "She'd just change herself and sink into her shadow, right? How about if we broke the lights? Then no more shadows,"

"But the sun's up now," Vivi said, "And we don't know if it's just shadow or dark that she can control….." Vivi trailed off, "I can't believe she got Luffy-san… I hope he's ok,"

Robin fell silent. She was just as worried as Vivi was, but she knew that if all they did was worry then they wouldn't be able to save him in the end.

"Don't worry, Miss Wednesday, we'll get him out," Robin said, which was true she was sure, she just didn't know how yet.

"Look at the good friends getting along so well," Somber said, a dark shadow covering her face.

Robin and Vivi could feel her anger flaring up again when suddenly she disappeared into her shadow again.

"What's going on!" Vivi shouted nervously, "You don't think she's going to go after Luffy-san do you?"

Robin's heart suddenly sank.

"Didn't she say Luffy-san was inside her shadow? Miss AllSunday what should we…"

"SHUTUP!" Robin yelled, not meaning to be harsh but having it come out as so anyway, "The captain will be fine,"

"For a matter of time anyway," Somber said suddenly appearing behind Robin.

She was coming out of the shadow that was being cast from the hanging lamp. Robin and Vivi were both quite surprised.

The lamp's shadow under Somber began to grow and seeped just underneath the hands that held Robin and began to suck them up. Robin, not about to let that happen to her was about to let go and jump when she noticed something odd about the floor. It was gone.

"Do you think I'm THAT foolish," Somber scoffed, I can control all the shadows here and so I simply connected all the shadows on the floor until it engulfed the whole thing. Somber turned to Vivi, "You should not be out playing with your friends when you have royal duties to tend to. I'm going to teach you that lesson the hard way. Just as I learned it."

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Nami and Sanji finally reached the Going Merry Gou. The ship was quiet as Nami placed Sanji on the bed in the girls room. Sure it was hers but it was the only _real_ bed inside the whole ship. Sanji was only halfway concious by now, Nami was surprised he was even that awake, he had been fully awake when they first started but due to fatigue and blood loss he was starting to lose his grip on being awake. He had probably refused to pass out so as not to put so much strain on her in walking.

Nami looked at Sanji on the bed for a moment and decided he would be fine by himself while she went to go find Chopper and the others for help. Nami turned and got her hand on the doorknob when Sanji spoke up.

"Nami-san. Don't go."

Nami froze, then turned her head enough to talk to Sanji, "I'm just going to get Chopper for you..." Nami trailed off when Sanji shook his head in response to her words.

"Chopper's the Super Doctor. He can probably smell the blood off of me from where he's at a is on his way at this very second," Sanji said the lauged meagerly, "So...stay with me," he pleaded.

Nami reluctantly took her hand off the door knob and sat down next to Sanji. Nami was now _sure _he had heard what she had said to him when she thought him to be unconscious after the fight with Gare. Nami wrenched at her hands nervously, sure Sanji was going to ask her about it. But the thing was, she wasn't really sure herself if she had meant what she had said. She had never been in love before and she wasn't sure if the feeling she was feeling towards Sanji were truly love or not.

She was sure she felt something different for him than she did all the others, but whether or not it was love...she had no clue.

A silence fell on the two for what seemed like an eternity, but was probably no longer than a couple of minutes.

"Nami-san..."

"Don't!" Nami interrupted him, "Please don't ask me if I meant it!"

Sanji paused, slightly shocked. That wasn't even what he was going to say. But at least now he was sure he hadn't imagined her confession.

"Why not?" Sanji asked before he could stop himself. He hadn't meant to say it, he didn't want to aggravate her, but for some reason he felt he couldn't let this go.

"Because! I'm not even sure if I meant it myself. I've never been in love before Sanji-kun,"

Silence fell between the two again.

"So," Sanji said so suddenly that it shocked Nami.

"What do you mean 'So'."

"So what if it isn't,"

Nami stared at him aghast, "I... Do YOU know what you feel for ME? If you weren't sure it was love but we ended up in a relationship wouldn't you be scared of hurting me?" she demanded.

Sanji shook his head, "No because I know exactly what it is I feel for you. I love you, Nami-san," he said without hesitating.

Nami blushed slightly, shocked at his out front confession.

"All the more reason," Nami said quietly, "I don't want to hurt you Sanji-kun,"

"But what would be the best way to find out if it's love or not?" Sanji asked, "Wouldn't it be to try out a relationship?"

"I guess, but..."

"Then let's try!"

"But what if it isn't love? I don't want to hurt..."

"We'll cross that road when we get there," Sanji paused, "Nami-san, you'll never be able to fall in love if you don't try!"

Nami fell silent for a moment. Thinking it over. Should she just throw cation to the wind and try a relationship with Sanji despite a posibility of hurting his feelings?

"Even if you end up hurt in the end?" Nami asked queitly.

"Even if," Sanji replied confidently.

Nami sighed and looked at the floor, somehow she knew it wouldn't be of any use to argue with Sanji.

"Alright," Nami said lifting her head, "let's give...it...a...tr...,"but Nami got cut off because Sanji had sat up in bed and leaned forward, and they kissed. It was short and sweet and rather odd due to the weird angle but it took both their breathes away.

After the kiss Sanji looked her in the face for what seemed like forever to Nami then he placed both hands on the side of her face and leaned in again...

SLAM!

The door swung open with a great force and Sanji fell to the floor with the shock. Nami instantly stood up as Usoppu and Chopper rushed into the room.

"I smell blood! Is everyone okay?" Chopper shouted.

That was it. Nami couldn't take it and so she began laughing uncontrollably. Usoppu and Chopper both looked at her oddly until they noticed Sanji on the floor and ran to help him.

"See, I told you," Sanji muttered as Chopper and Usoppu lifted him onto the bed.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Robin swallowed hard. She was sure how to get out of this one, and more importantly how on earth they were going to get Luffy out of that girl's. . .shadow. That's when the peacock slasher wizzed just past her ear.

Somber also barely had time to react, she quickly sank herself back in to the shadow the peacock slasher followed and was jerked out of Vivi's hands and sucked into the shadow. But it didn't matter, Vivi had gotten the reaction she was hoping for. With Somber's concentration broken the large shadow engulfing the floor disappeared.

"Go NOW! Miss AllSunday! It seems she wants me! Go and I'll figure out something!" Vivi shouted to Robin.

Robin looked at Vivi shocked. After all Robin had done to her in Alabasta the princess was trying to rish her life to save her. Robin half smiled bitterly, she guessed it was normal for a princess to put themselves after others, or at least the good ones, but this was ridiculous. Robin shook her head. Nope, she wasn't going anywhere! She had promised Luffy she would take care of her! And she was going to hold up to her word!

"I'm not going anywhere!" Robin said looking at Vivi sturnly to let her know she wasn't kidding. Vivi just looked straight back.

"Yes you are," Somber said returning from the shadow. As she did so did the large shadow on the floor. Robin and her hands began to start getting sucked into the shadow on the ceiling again but this time Robin had an idea and decided to give it a test run.

"Vente Fleur," Robin shouted and a bunch of hands sprang off of the hanging light and Robin swung herself to them.

Vivi smiled and figured to herself that this was probably why she had been Crocodile's partner, she was incredibly smart.

"Alright Miss Wednesday!" Robin shouted, "I got a plan to get rid of this spoiled brat! Let's get Luffy back!"

"OH!" Vivi shouted in return as a bunch of hands came and swung Vivi onto the next hanging lamp over.

Robin whispered her plan to Vivi as they both hung off of the hanging lamps and she nodded agreeing every step of the way.

"Alright," Robin said, "Let's go!"

Vivi nodded and whipped out the peacock slasher that Zoro had changed for her and whipped it around the next lamp closest to her and one further away from Robin.

"Ciento Fleur!" Robin shouted with conviction and then hundreds of hands sparng forth around the windows covering them up one at a time.

Vivi (now hanging from the lamp in the center of the room) pulled out her extra peacock slasher from her belt and began to put out all the lamps by breaking them. Somber would have tried to stop her but they had been right in taking the chance on her being able to control darkness because she couldn't, and without the shadows of the hanging lamps on the ceiling she had to quickly go down into the shadows on the floor. There was one lamp left when she got there, the only light left in the room, it was in the far corner and she was trapped so-to-speak in the small circle of light. Because despite being the Princess of Shadows. The ruler of the Island Mayonaka, the Island of eternal (almost) midnight. Somber had a crippling fear of the dark.

As Vivi brought back her peacock slashers in order to take out the last lamp, Somber finally lost it.

"DON'T! PLEASE!" Somber screamed, pleading.

Vivi brought down her peacock slasher and she and Robin exchanged glances.

"Then give us the eternal pose for Insula and return our Captain," Robin demanded.

"I CAN'T" Somber sobbed hulding up in what was left of the light.

Vivi was begining to feel bad now, "Why not?" she asked.

"IT'S ALL I HAVE LEFT OF MY FRIEND! MY NAKAMA!"

: - : - : (Flashback for Somber): - : - : - :

Somber had lost her family at the very young age of ten and had to resume all the royal duties of Mayonaka starting at that time. She was very lonely as a child. Even if she had Gare, who was the son of an old deceased friend of the family, and Taso, who had been her childhood friend for quite some time with a mysterious past that involved pirates, she still felt lonely. They were both boys and could not give her the type of close relationship she could have with a family member or with another girl her age. Then two years ago (making Somber 12) she met the person that was to become her best friend.

At a king's meeting over the draught and recent disappearance of the Princess in Alabasta is where Somber met Rackham Moderna. She was Somber's age but she was the apparent guardian of one of the nobles from Insula there. Whatever the case Somber was surprised to see a girl as young as she was there.

Apparently Moderna was surprised with Somber's presence as well because in the after mingling of the meeting Moderna came up and introduced herself.

Lonely and desperate for a friend and suddenly feeling compelled to tell her life story Somber told Moderna about herself, to which Moderna only smiled sweetly at Somber.

She told Somber that her parents had died recently too and that they were both very strong pirates and had taught her everything they knew, which was why she was strong enough to guard one of the royal families. Only Moderna didn't seem lonely at all to Somber. The girl was so strong, seemed to strong spirited compared to herself. It made Somber hate herself.

Somehow Moderna seemed to notice and offered that if Somber was so lonely she could come and join her over in Mayonaka and be her friend if Somber wanted her to. Somber was shocked a little at first, that she could switch what country she worked for so long and just come and join her in Mayonaka, but when she ran and asked Taso who had come with her he seemed to think it was a good idea as they were on good terms with Insula anyway and the King (Horatius' father at that time ) didn't seem to mind.

And so Moderna embarked out with them to Mayonaka that day and stayed with them for over a year and Somber and Moderna. But three months ago Moderna suddenly announced that she was going back to Insula.

She said she was bored with Mayonaka and Princess Somber herself and had decided to return to where she was before. Somber tried to stop her, desperate to keep the only friend that seemed to understand her, but Moderna called her selfish for keeping Moderna from her dream just for Somber's own happiness and then left, the two of them on bad terms.

This was why Mayonaka's alliance with Insula ended three months ago. Somber had been considering following Moderna and leaving her country. But she had come to love her country and couldn't just leave her duties, and so she stayed, and kept her only eternal pose to Insula as a treasure in case she ever changed her mind to go after her only friend.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

"It's all that I have left of Moderna," Somber sobbed, "She went to Insula and I wanted to go to. But I CAN'T! BECAUSE OF MY DUTIES!" Somber screamed between sobbs, "WHY DO **_YOU _**GET TO BE WITH **_YOUR _**FRIENDS DESPITE YOUR DUTIES! IT ISN'T **_FAIR_**!"

Robin looked over at Vivi. Vivi looked like she was about to start crying herself.

"Then we'll ask her to come back for you," Vivi said so suddenly it even shocked Robin.

Somber stopped sobbing and looked up at Vivi, "What?" she asked.

"I'm not with my friends because I left my country. I'm with my nakama because I need their help to go to Insula. And if you can't go to Insula to go and get your friend then I'll ask your friend to come back to you. I'm sure once your nakama hears that you need her that she'll come back to you."

Somber continued to look at Vivi, shocked, "You'd do that for me?" Somber asked.

"If we can have the eternal pose," Vivi promised, "And you give us back our Captain,"

Somber looked at Vivi as if trying to read her to see if she was lying, but apparently decided that she wasn't because she nodded and said, "Ok."

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

Zoro kicked open the door at the top of the stairs but had obviously arrived to late. Robin was lowering herself to the floor using her extra hands as more of those extra hands began to extract themselves off the windows and all the lamps in the room were broken except one.

A young girl with long purple hair and a black robe in the corner gasped when Zoro ran in and cowered when she noticed his swords.

"It's alright," Vivi said, "He's a friend of mine,"

It took Zoro a moment to realize that Vivi was hanging off of a lamp in mid-air.

"VIVI! What are you doing up there!" Kohza demanded from behind Zoro.

Vivi smiled and waved at Kohza and Zoro, "Hanging out," she said and laughed slightly at her stupid joke, "What took you guys so long?"

Robin walked over to the young girl and an unconscious Luffy seemed to materialize out of nowhere. Robin bent over to check on him.

"The swordsman got us lost!" Kohza shouted back.

"SHUT UP!" Zoro shouted.

"Come down from there!" Kohza shouted back ignoring Zoro.

"Ah! Just as soon as I figure out ho--" Vivi began when suddenly she was falling.

Zoro and Kohza both gasped but Zoro was quicker. He was under her in seconds and dove underneath her just in time to catch her before she fell.

Vivi sat in his arms shocked as he began to stand up. Zoro noticed Robin smile and wink at him just as she turned her head back to look at Luffy.

What the hell did she mean by that! It wasn't like Zoro WANTED to catch Vivi, right? Right? Zoro scowled at Robin's back and a hand grew on the lamp and untangled it from the lamp dropping it in Vivi's lap, who was still in Zoro's arms.

"You can put Miss Wednesday down now. Kenshi-san," Robin said matter-of-factly.

Zoro blushed slightly and placed Vivi down on the floor.

Vivi smiled, "Thank you Mr. Bushido," she said sweetly.

"Whatever," Zoro replied and rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

Kohza just frowned at them and Robin. What was that women trying to do anyway.

: - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : - : -: - : - :

The next morning everyone was rested and ready to go back to the Going Merry Gou and head out for Insula. Usoppu had come back to tell everyone that Sanji, Nami, and Chopper were all fine and were waiting for them on the ship. Taso and Gare where both back at the castle and had seen a doctor and where going to be fine as well. They both apologized for causing trouble.

Luffy happily held up the eternal pose to Insula, "Man to think this little thing could cause so much trouble," he said.

"Be CAREFUL with that!" Usoppu and Kohza both shouted.

Luffy sweatdropped.

Just before they all left after saying their goodbyes Somber came and pulled Vivi off the the side.

"I just wanted to apologize again," Somber said.

"Don't worry about it," Vivi replied, "Who know what I would have done in your shoes,"

"Also," Somber paused, "I haven't got a picture of Moderna but...she, Moderna, The Black Mariah...The Witch will be barefoot and in a dress only. That's how you can tell who she is. I'm sorry but that's all I can give you,"

Vivi nodded, "I'll find her! I promise!" she said and the Luffy pirates left.

Back on the Going Merry Gou while Chopper ran off to survey the damages on everyone, Sanji and Nami quickly decided with each other that although they WERE now in a relationship that they would keep it secret from the others for the meantime, then went out to great the others as well.

"Hey Nami! We got the eternal pose for Insula! Look!" Luffy shouted excitedly at Nami as the others greeted each other loudly.

"Oh," Nami shouted, "Let me see it,"

"OK!" Luffy shouted back and tossed it over all the heads of the people in the way.

SMASH! The eternal pose broke into a thousand pieces on the wall next to Nami.

Everyone instantly fell silent and Luffy sweatdropped.

**"LUFFY! YOU IDIOT!"** Everyone shouted at once.

Authors Note pt.2: Ok! The next update will DEFINITELY be up on Monday Feb. 20th! Or probably sooner as I have a LOT of lost time to make up for. Sorry again guys. And Otanoshimini!


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